The African Union High Representative for Silencing the Guns, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, has urged President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to ensure that the 2024 general elections are free from bloodshed.

Delivering a speech at the maiden edition of the Diplomatic Honours in Accra, Dr. Chambas noted the deaths that marked the 2020 election, calling them a blemish on Ghana’s enviable record of non-violent elections.

He cautioned that such incidents must not occur again.

“With all due respect, Mr. President, the 2024 elections are all about legacy, the President's legacy, and it should not be under the watch of Mr. President, with his antecedents in democratic building in this country, that Ghana will experience violence and mayhem during these general elections.

“Please, Mr. President, make it your pledge, your mantra, your cardinal goal, to deliver elections in which not a single Ghanaian blood will be shed. 2020 was to some extent a blemish on our enviable record in delivering non-violent elections. Let it not be repeated, let us draw a line on that,” he said as reported by myjoyonline.

Dr. Chambas also offered some recommendations to help reverse what he described as a ‘regression’ in democratic gains.

Pointing out how many countries on the continent are ravaged by militant groups, Dr Chambas said that Ghana, “our beloved country remains the beacon of hope, as we have demonstrated resilience in maintaining a peaceful, stable, young democratic dispensation, a remarkable level of tolerance, social cohesion, and national unity.”

According to him, election years usually pose a threat to the country’s reputation and exemplary status in Africa and the world at large, with election 2024 being no exception.

“Some will say 2024 is particularly tense, which frankly shouldn’t be, as a country is blessed to have two fine gentlemen, two remarkable personalities, indeed, two brothers, I almost said, two of my brothers, who have each made significant contributions to peace and development in our country, facing off at the presidential election on December 7, one the former president, and the other, the incumbent vice president of the republic.

“It cannot be, it should not be, and it must not be, that it will be during their election that Ghana’s democracy will suffer a regrettable, violent downturn,” he added, according to a report by myjoyonline.com

ID/AE