Ensure peace in Election 2008

Accra, April 16, GNA - The Ghana for Peace Project aimed at ensuring peaceful elections and transition was launched on Wednesday with a call on Ghanaians to live peacefully with one another to sustain peace and stability in the country. "We must not play the ostrich by burying our heads in the sand in respect of promoting peace consciously and earnestly," Mr Opoku Mensah, Executive Secretary of the National Peace Council, who launched the project in Accra said. The Ghana for Peace Project, an initiative of the youth in collaboration with the National Peace Council, seeks to ensure peace before, during and after election 2008. It has also developed campaign strategies and communications vehicles to drive home the essence of a peaceful election and national focus on patriotism. It is on the theme: "Ghana Must Win".

Mr Mensah noted that when emotions got bruised and opportunity was denied sections of the people on equal playing ground, the results were that they reacted and demanded their share of the privilege. The demand, he said, became the ingredient which would result in revolts and agitations and at the end escalate to heights of violence and war, adding that Ghanaians should not think that violence that had happened in the sub-region could not happen in the country. "We therefore have to protect the peace", he said.

The Project Director, Mr. Micheal Asumanu said the plight of future leaders in the sub-region was that of hopelessness due to conflicts and political instability and noted that Ghana needed to put in place measures to avert any such occurrence. He said, the objectives of the project included sustaining peace in the county and the sub-region, rekindling in the Ghanaian a sense of patriotism and the virtues of freedom and peace. Mr Asumanu observed that the project would impact positively on the political landscape by appealing to eligible voters, corporate Ghana and international organizations to be active participants in the crusade to build a better Ghana. "We believe Ghana is on the verge of repeating our political achievement in 2008 elections." He expressed the hope that at the end of the project, peace in the country would be cherished and safeguarded.

Representatives of the four major political parties - NPP, NDC, CPP and PNC - pledged their parties' commitment to ensure peace before, during and after the election and signed a peace register to that effect.