Ghanaians are urged by Chambas to hold peaceful elections
Immanuel Amuah 
The chairman of the AU High-Level Panel on Sudan and the African Union's (AU) High Representative for Silencing the Guns, Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas, has urged Ghanaians to hold free and peaceful elections.
“We have a track record that, yes, on our continent, in our sub-region, when they are counting countries that are known for generally peaceful, credible elections, Ghana, we are up there. And we want to keep it up there,” he stated.
During the official opening of the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers' (CODEO) election day observation activities and the beginning of its cascade training for observers for the December 2024 Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, Dr. Chambas made an appeal Thursday in Accra.
On December 7, Ghanaians will cast ballots to choose a president and 276 MPs for four-year terms.
Dr. Chambas reaffirmed that prior performance did not guarantee future achievement, stating
“So, this is where vigilance is called for. Let’s not be complacent.” “Let us work to improve on our past performance and make every process even better.”
Furthermore, each stakeholder had a role to play in this.
According to him, both state institutions and civil society organizations had a part to play in making sure that free and peaceful elections were held.
“There was an issue of violence that came up in the past. I think we’re all determined to make sure that this time around we’ll go back to normal, which is we want to have elections at the end of which no Ghanaian has to lose their life. That’s very, very important,” Dr Chambas said.
“And we’ve had some very assuring words from the EC. I would like to believe that they will work to improve on their past performance to give everybody the confidence that this process will be very, very credible and transparent.”
Dr. Chambas criticized the low number of women in Ghana's parliament and encouraged Ghanaians to make sure that the number increases in the country's next parliament.
Dr. Chambas stated: "CODEO's impartiality should be maintained" in reference to the organization's contributions to Ghana's democratic advances. It has been mentioned that CODEO is known for being incorruptible.
