The Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) has called on the Electoral Commission (EC) to open up to more consultations on critical electoral issues to avoid suspicion from stakeholders.
It said though the EC was enjoined by law to be more transparent, professional and independent in the conduct of its activities, the growing mistrust among political parties had necessitated the need for increased consultations for a sustained national peace.
Mr Albert Kofi Arhin, CODEO National Coordinator, said this at a media briefing at the end of the seventh nationwide roundtable on the surge in political vigilantism across the country in Cape Coast.
The programme was on the theme: “The menace of political party vigilantism and Ghana’s Electoral politics”.
Participants included representatives of political parties, security agencies, Head of Departments, the National Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ), the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), the media among others.
Mr Arhin described the influx of political vigilante groups and the impunity of their activities as an aberration in Ghana’s politics and a threat to national peace and stability.
Consequently, he asked the media to throw its searchlight on the activities of these groups and engage relevant stakeholders in a dispassionate discourse to end the menace.
He also advised the leadership of political parties noted for nurturing such vigilante groups to collaborate with the law enforcement agencies to foil their plans.
The CODEO National Coordinator said political interference in the professional work of security agencies clogged their effective functioning and stressed the need for the hierarchy of such institutions to be shielded from political manipulations.
He expressed the apprehension that vigilante groups were more equipped than the security agencies, a situation he said if not checked, could lead to them growing to become mercenaries and terrorists groups.
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Source: GNA