Since the inception of the Fourth Republican Constitution in 1992, which ushered in the current multi party democratic dispensation, Ghana has become the beacon of hope as far as democracy is concerned in the sub Saharan region.
This follows the successful conducts of seven presidential and parliamentary elections that are held every four years to elect a president and Members of Parliament (MPs)
It is a fact that on the Continent of Africa some countries have been devastated, whilst others have been plunged into civil wars as a result of their inability to endure the tenets of democracy.
This often occurs when the conduct of elections is marred by violence, or the outcome becomes disputed by the players involved, leading to the outbreak of lawlessness and violence.
The devastating effects of such civil wars, which arise from political instability, lead to citizens becoming their own adversaries and turning the barrel of the gun against one another.
Thousands are often killed, while several hundreds are maimed in the name of settling political scores, leading to concomitant effects that take hundreds of years to forget.
Empirical evidence regarding how some countries have been ruined by political turmoil abounds around the continent, and the world at large. It is in view of this that Ghana, as a country, has endeared herself to the world as a nation that believes in multiparty democracy.
This feat, however, was not achieved on a silver platter, but through consensus, togetherness, compromise, and other cherished Ghanaian principles that bond us together as a people.
Notwithstanding the overwhelming enviable records that we have chalked as a multiparty democratic country over the years, there seems to be what could best be described as an annual ritual of violence in our elections.
Though the previous elections have ended successfully, they have always witnessed one form of violence or the other, and The Chronicle finds this to be very worrying and disgusting.
Unfortunately, this canker has the tendency to erode all our political fortunes. The violence has already reared its ugly head, ahead of the December polls.
The usual accusations and counter-accusations between the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the largest opposition party, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), have started in earnest at some registration centres as a new register is being compiled by the EC for the December polls.
Already, some innocent citizens have been experiencing pockets of violence outbreaks in their communities and some registration centres.
It has been alleged that a Member of Parliament has been assaulted by some marauding thugs in the Bono Region during the ongoing registration exercise.
It is also being alleged that a Member of Parliament was ambushed by some people alleged to have come from the opposite side of the political divide.
These are just, but a few of the violence that were displayed at the registration centers.
The Chronicle would like to condemn such obsolete tactics by these political hooligans, because they are a threat to our democracy
The Chronicle would like to stress that our democracy is still fragile, which must be wisely handled and with great caution.
The countries that have been ravaged by civil wars started with such needless tensions and violence, just as we are currently experiencing in this country.
We are calling on the police to be resolute and fearless, so that they would be able to ward off any potential political groupings whose activities would be inimical to the forward march of the country
Coming events, they say, cast their shadows. The activities of these hooligans should be a wake-up call to us, that we are not immune from political turmoil
We are, therefore, calling on both political parties to call their supporters to order, so as to end the needless political tension that is gradually building up.
The post Editorial : Let’s defuse the needless political tension appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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