A National Elections Taskforce will soon be formed, comprising personnel from all the security agencies, ahead of the November polls.
Inspector General of Police John Kudalor made the announcement on Accra 100.5 FM’s Breakfast Show ‘Ghana Yensom ’ on Monday January 4, 2016.
The Taskforce will help ensure that the November polls are conducted in an atmosphere of peace.
Personnel from the Immigration Service, Prisons Service, Fire Service, Customs, and the Ghana Armed Forces will help augment the numbers of the Police during the elections so as to forestall mayhem and mishaps, the IGP explained.
Mr Kudalor said the Ghana Police Service started preparing for the November polls last year and have been preparing for the worst scenarios that could occur.
As part of efforts to avert clashes between rival political parties during electioneering, Mr Kudalor said the parties will be required to write to the Police to request security for their rallies and political gatherings.
He said the Police Command will be fair to all parties, without fear or favour, adding that all flagbearers and MP aspirants will be given police protection for the elections.
Ghanaians are billed to vote in November for a new President and Parliament.
President John Mahama is running for a second term on the ticket of the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC).
His arch-contender, Nana Akufo-Addo, three-time flagbearer of the biggest opposition party – NPP – will be slugging it out with his former colleague MP for the second time.
Mr Mahama beat the former Attorney General in the 2012 polls. His predecessor, Prof John Mills also defeated Mr Akufo-Addo in 2008.
The NDC and NPP are clearly the frontrunners, but smaller parties such as the Convention People’s Party (CPP), Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and the People’s National Convention (PNC) are regrouping.
Political analysts have predicted a tight race between the NPP and NDC, since this will be Mr Akufo-Addo’s third attempt at 72. Apart from former President John Rawlings and Mr Mahama, other presidents of the Fourth Republic – Mr John Kufuor and Prof Mills – tried multiple times before ascending the presidency. Thus, Mr Akufo-Addo and the NPP have that aspect of history on their side. On the other hand, it is also a historical fact that no sitting president has ever lost an election in Ghana’s fourth republican constitution. Both Mr Rawlings and Mr Kufuor served their two full-terms before leaving office. Death denied Prof Mills that privilege. Mr Mahama and the NDC, therefore, also have that aspect of history on their side.
These and other reasons make the 2016 elections one that neither side would want to lose.
<<Print>>