Former Administrative Bishop of the Methodist Church, the Right Reverend Dr Brew Riverson, has appealed to political parties to stop threatening and intimidating perceived opponents at the biometric voter registration centres.

He said if it is in the calculation of anybody that it is by doing this that they would stand a better chance of winning the upcoming December elections they are making a sad mistake.

“There is no need to panic about elections. We need to be honest for the good of the country’s democracy. The people must be allowed to freely elect their leaders without coercion or violence”, he added.

This was contained in a press statement made available to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Kumasi.

The Rt. Rev. Dr Riverson said, the on-going electoral roll compilation is a test of “our individual and corporate integrity and nationalism” and it is important not to encourage foreigners and the under-aged to take part in the exercise.

People who do this, he said, are not only traitors but unfit to be leaders of the nation.

He pleaded with the politicians to be civil and decent in their conduct, pointing out that, those who resort to insults and vilification only reveal the “insecurity they have in their own hearts and the fear they have for change.”

“We should not forget that in democracy it is not only people that get elected who make things happen. It is in fact every citizen’s contribution that builds real foundations for progress and development.”**