Catholic Archbishop advocates peaceful elections in Northern Region

Most Reverend Phillip Naameh, Metropolitan Archbishop of Tamale has called on the political parties in the Northern Region to sustain the prevailing peace by shunning provocative actions during their political campaigns towards Election 2012.

He said the world is watching Ghana especially the Region to see whether the area could emerge successfully in the elections.

Archbishop Naameh made the call when he addressed a mid-review meeting of Monday Civic Campaigns Report Council (MCC) in Tamale.

The MCC Report Council is a component of Northern Ghana Aid (NOGAID) under its Northern Regions 2012 Multi-Party Democratic Governance Support Programme, being sponsored by STAR Ghana with funding from UKaid, EU, DANIDA and USAID.

The review covered 14 weeks of monitoring the activities of the political parties in 15 constituencies across the Region.

The review among other tasks evaluated the campaign activities of the parties and the modus operandi of their communication teams.

A member of the MCC Report Council; Vo-Naa M.B. Bawa, commended the political parties for their exemplary conduct in doing clean campaigns and supporting the peace in the Region.

Naa Bawa who is also a Member of the Council of State said the MCC Report Council members are committed to share their experiences in all mediation efforts to ensure peaceful elections in the area.

Mr. Mustapha Sanah, Executive Chairman of NOGAID said 14 weeks of close monitoring of political parties activities by the Council’s Observer Teams on the ground indicates that people are beginning to appreciate that politics is about the contest of ideas and not violence.

The MCC Council members commended the political parties, the media, security agencies and other stakeholders for maintaining peace in the region.

The project intervention of MCC is to train communication team members of the political parties in the Region as well as personnel of the media to avoid acts that could jeopardise the General Elections.

The Council has deployed political Observer Teams in 15 electoral hotspots to monitor the campaign activities of the political parties and assess whether they are in conformity with the Political Parties Code of Conduct 2012.