Sunyani, July 29, GNA - Some residents in the Sunyani Municipality have threatened to boycott the 2012 general election if politicians did not stop trading insults at each other. They noted with regret that 93the airwaves and the news papers nowadays are full of insults from both the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP).

The residents expressed their views in random interviews with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Friday about the trading of insults on the country's political scene.

Kwadwo Asirifi, a taxi driver, said most of his passengers complained bitterly about the current situation and would sometimes ask him to turn off his radio to avoid the phone-in segment of programmes.

"Most young people listen to such programmes or read the newspapers a lot and if such insults are coming from our noble politicians who are well respected as role models, the youth would definitely copy from them," he said. Mr David Ohene Adjei, a public servant, noted that democracy in the country was still in the embryonic stage and all efforts must be geared towards solidifying it to enhance the well-being of all Ghanaians.

"One seldom heard or saw anybody, old or young, raining insults on government officials or elderly people in the 1960s and 1990s but now the practice is rampant," he added.

Mr Adjei said the youth or the public should not be blamed for the trend but the political leaders and that they must be held responsible for their actions.

Mrs Elizabeth Baah, a nurse, noted that insults were not coming from the so-called smaller parties but rather the NDC and the NPP. "If all Ghanaians will agree with me, we should sideline the NDC and the NPP and vote for one of the smaller parties in 2012". She advised politicians and political parties to eschew the politics of insults and rather help to resolve the country's problems such as the recent floods.