2024 Election Accept Defeat When the Results is Declared Kan Dapaah Warns Political Parties

National Security Minister, Mr. Alban Kan-Dapaah, has cautioned political parties to be prepared to accept defeat in order to avoid any form of post electoral violence.

Mr. Kan-Dapaah underscored the need to sustain peace and stability during the upcoming December 7 elections, adding that, post-election violence have the tendency of tearing a nation apart, hence, the need to protect the peace and tranquility that already exist in Ghana by accepting the results that will be declared by the Electoral Commission.

Speaking as a guest at the Catholic Bishops’ Conference’s programme in Accra, dubbed, “National forum on social cohesion, security and peaceful elections’, Mr. Kan-Dapaah said, “internally and coming home to Ghana, we persist to be confronted with the threat of electoral violence which has in the past threatened to destroy our country.”

According to him, deliberately underestimating the threat of electoral violence, could compromise the integrity of Ghana’s democracy, even though Ghana as a democratic nation has traditionally been proud of its peaceful transfers of power between the two main political parties, that is, the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party.

He noted, “Yes, we have succeeded as a country in ensuring a transition of power from one political party to another on modernisation.”

Referring to commentaries from the two biggest political parties, the National Security Minister posited that such ambitious comments from the parties have the potential to incite their party sympathisers and followers to engage in violence on Election Day if one party loses.

He said, “The 2024 general elections will certainly test the strength of our democracy. Given the high stakes involved, where the two major political parties appear convinced about their prospects of emerging victorious. That obviously creates a security test for me where I sit.”

In the same vein, the President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, Ghana, in an interview with the media reiterated the need to pursue the lasting gift of peace over any electoral violence that will run the peace of the nation downwards.

Most Reverend Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, further admonished all politicians on the need for political parties to accept the outcome of the election and not take benefit of the peace Ghana enjoys by inciting people for destruction.

“absolutely during the election, someone will lose, someone will win. So, for you to lose the election and use the pain to incite people to cause havoc to destroy the peace, usually, it is the political leaders who have lost that lead to such destruction. So our advice is to the political leaders that if you lose, please accept it peacefully,” he added.

“Ghanaians must also be aware of their responsibilities. They must not allow themselves to be used by politicians who lose elections. Peace is very expensive and sometimes we have to make sacrifices one time or the other to sustain it. So may nobody participate in violence. So those who lose, accept it peacefully.”Kobina Darlington/