With 26 days left until the 2024 general elections, the Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Kathleen Addy has urged Ghanaians to prioritise peace and unity.
During the filming of a pop-up dance by staff of the NCCE at the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park in Accra on Monday, November 11, 2024, she emphasised that the pending election should be a celebration of democracy, not violence.
"We are here at the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. It is a historic site. We are filming our pop-up dance spreading the message of peace to all Ghanaians as we count down to election day.
"As we keep saying, it is not a day for fighting. It is not about bloodshed. It is not about violence. Somebody is going to win, and somebody is going to lose.
"We must all prepare our minds. Until it is announced, we cannot make any assumptions and so we must prepare our minds for that," she noted.
Kathleen Addy also called on voters to reject bribes, avoid violence, desist from using insults or inflammatory language before and after the election.
"Don't sell your votes. Don't engage in violent activities. Don't use insults or intemperate language. Be tolerant of everybody no matter their faith or ethnic group, and finally beware of fake news. Don't automatically share everything that lands in your inbox.
"Be clean and safe so, that we can continue to build our republic. It is very important for all Ghanaians including politicians to ensure that we don't divide our country, our society, our community along religious lines," she added.
She further urged voters to base their decisions on candidates’ competence, track record, and vision, not on divisive issues.
"Let people vote based on a criterion of competence, track record, vision that they can buy into and not issues of 'who worships where' and all of that... We are calling on politicians to also heed to this call and we are calling on citizens to ignore these messages and focus on what is important," she noted.
Watch the video below:
JKB/ ADG