The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) in collaboration with St. Anne’s Youth Choir of Sacred Heart Catholic Church (SHC) in Ho in the Volta Region has organised a peace concert aimed to encourage peaceful elections.

The concert held at the SHC on Saturday, 7 November 2020 was characterised with musical, poetry and choral performances including peace messages from the various political representatives, individuals and heads of institutions within and outside the Ho municipality.

Speaking briefly on harnessing peaceful environment before, during and after the 7 December elections, the Volta Regional Director of NCCE, Mr Ken Kponor said “Many local level assembly elections, schools and colleges elections sometimes generate very hot-blooded atmosphere which of cause shouldn’t be so that is why we need to talk about peace before, during and after the December 2020 elections”.

The Director noted that, Ghana needs a peaceful environment after the elections to enable sustainable development.

“We need stable development, we need a peaceful and united nation to educate our children, we need a stable economy to grow our businesses and support the government-elect to champion the developmental goals of the nation,” he said.

Mr Kponor charged young Ghanaians not to allow themselves to be used as an instrument of mayhem.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE) of Ho, Kofi P-Bansah also reiterated the need to ensure peaceful elections and urged constituents to ensure they cast their votes on the December 7 devoid of violence.

The leadership of Ho Youth Parliament under the National Youth Authority (NYA) also at the event called on the youth across the country not to allow themselves to be used to cause mayhem.

For his part, leader and Speaker of the Youth Parliament, Faisel Abdul-Iddrisu said, “I followed keenly the post-electoral violence in Ivory Coast between 2010-11 and the excesses from that violence was devastating and led to the killing of an estimated 3000 people. We have had elections in the past and recorded pockets of violence but we have always managed them without further escalation and so, we remain a united nation.

“Our message to the youth is that they shouldn’t allow themselves to be used as tools for violence, to cause mayhem or any form of disturbances. Any youth at the voting age who goes to the polling station on the day of election should cast the ballot and get home and wait for the results. There shouldn’t be any reason to join the streets to cause confusion,” he added.