High Level Meeting with political parties to be postponed

The 2nd High Level Meeting (HLM) of national leaders expected to be hosted by the National Peace Council (NPC) and the National House of Chiefs (NHC) in collaboration with the Institute for Democratic Governance (IDEG) at the University of Ghana, Legon may not come on Wednesday, November 23 as scheduled.

This is because one of the dignitaries for the event has another equally important assignment. The dignitary, Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, who is expected to grace the occasion, may not be able to attend the event expected to take place at the Great Hall of the University of Ghana, Legon at 2pm due to the one-week celebration of the demise of the late Asantehemaa, the mother of Otumfuo.

A source within the event organizers told Onua FM that they have no option than to postpone the event. The HLM is a concept that seeks to create public space for leaders of the nation to meet and reason together on how best to provide collective and non-partisan leadership in addressing critical challenges to the democratic stability, peace and unity of the country during the crucial and immediate post-elections moments.

These are the moments leading to the declaration of the results of the presidential elections and thereafter. Experiences from 2008 and 2012 elections show that communications, consultations and dialogues across institutions, political parties and the public tend to break down in those sensitive moments, creating a dangerous vacuum in a highly polarized, partisan and charged situation.

That insight informs the need for a collective national leadership to assist the NPC in its collaboration and facilitation of critical communication, consultations and dialogues in the forthcoming post-elections period. The 2nd HLM was to launch the process of the constituting the collective national leadership and mobilizing broad-based public support for their mission.