CSUC ON POST-ELECTION VIOLENCE

A Senior Lecturer at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, Dr. Festus Aubyn, has called for an amendment of Section 42 of the People’s Representation Law to give part of the powers of the Attorney General as the sole prosecutor of criminal offences in the country to other state organizations or functionaries. 

This, according to him, will ensure that people who perpetrate criminal offences, particularly during change of governments are conclusively prosecuted to deter party faithful from perpetrating atrocities after almost every Presidential polls.

 Dr. Aubyn was delivering a public lecture in Kumasi on the theme: “Managing Post-Election Challenges in an Emerging Democracy” organized by the Christian Service University College, CSUC.

 Dr. Aubyn’s topic was ‘In Search of a Lasting Antidote to Post-Election Conflicts in Ghana’. 

He mentioned the seizure of public property such as toilets, toll booths, and offices as well as the physical attacks on some public workers by political party adherents as in the case of the vigilante groups in the past and now as classical cases of post-election violence. 

Dr. Aubyn said the failure of the state to conclusively prosecute such criminal elements cannot be blamed on law enforcement agencies such as the Ghana Police Service but the lack of political will on the part of succeeding Attorney Generals who act on behalf of their governments formed out political parties.

He observed that such crimes are perpetrated mostly after a change of government from one political party to another and attributed them to the unrealistic promises made by political party leaders to their members and sympathizers especially at the grassroots level. 

The President of IMANI Ghana, Franklin Cudjoe, also attributed some of the crimes after elections to unrealistic promises by politicians and political parties, to especially their followers during campaigns. 

President of the CSUC, Professor Sam Afrane, explained that the lecture was to provide a platform for key stakeholders in Ghana’s electoral process to critically evaluate issues bordering on General Elections particularly transition and post-transition matters which must be well-managed to allow for sustained national socio-economic development.