The British High Commissioner to Ghana, Jon Benjamin has said that the United Kingdom has no favoured political party and candidate in Ghana’s elections.
Benjamin said what UK wants to see is a peaceful, credible, free and fair election and they will work with whoever is voted into power.
But he reiterated that they will consider visa bans on anyone behind violence, or otherwise heightens tensions unnecessarily through intimidation, incitement or hate speech.
Jon Benjamin made these remarks while addressing police officers at the police headquarters at the launch of educational material for the elections 2016.
Some of the materials included public order management manuals, election booklet on the roles and responsibilities of a security officer at the polling station, aide memoire, posters, flyers, duty armlets, maps and others.
He told the police hierarchy represented by the Inspector General of Police and police management board members, to strive to work professionally in the discharge of their duties during the elections period.
Adding, he posited that United Kingdom believe that public security is the job of the police and theirs alone. “There should be no role for so-called party vigilante groups. Indeed, we think that such groups are wholly incompatible with democracy in the 21st Century.”
Jon Benjamin continued that the UK has supported each of Ghana’s six elections and have all seen how the process has strengthened the country’s democracy.
He noted that UKAID, Department for International Development (DFID) has been working with a wide range of Ghanaian partners over the last eight months to develop a programme aimed at supporting a successful election in December 2016.
He entreated the public to behave properly during the election period.
The Inspector General of Police, John Kudalor in his address said the maps given will be distributed to all the 275 constituencies within the country.
“The duty armlet is to be worn by all security personnel on duty at the 29,000 polling stations countrywide and the use is to ensure easy identification of security personnel on lawful duty at the polling stations.
The Minister of the Interior, Prosper Bani, for his part, urged members of the national election security task force to work as a team and strive to share information and intelligence for a peaceful election.
<<Print>>