The West African Elders Forum (WAEF) has expressed optimism about the successful conduct of Ghana’s upcoming general election.
Former President of Nigeria and Chairman of the West African Elders Forum, Goodluck Jonathan, has led a delegation to Ghana as part of the pre-election assessment mission.
The forum’s objective is to ensure that the election process is peaceful and free from conflict.
Addressing the media during the Forum’s third strategic meeting in Accra today, 9 October 2024, Jonathan highlighted the critical importance of proper election management.
“We’ve met other critical stakeholders and from what I can summarise, the meetings were quite robust. We met with some of the candidates. We’ll meet with more candidates but so far, we’ve met with the candidate of the ruling party. We met with the candidate of the NDC and we’ll meet with other candidates before the election. Yes, issues were raised. Definitely, issues are always there during the elections.”
He added, “As sophisticated as America, there are issues. So you don’t expect that an African country will conduct elections without issues, having listened to such explanations with the electoral management body, the security, and all those departments of government that are meant to solve this problem.
“We’ve seen their genuine commitment to resolving this issue that appears green. We are very hopeful that the elections will be perfectly conducted,” Jonathan said.
Jonathan also emphasised the need for maximum transparency to build trust in the electoral process.
“The advice generally, as I’ve said, is that both the Electoral Commission and the security, these are two critical agencies that will man elections. In the first place, for elections in any country to be successful, all citizens of that country must be committed to a very successful election. Everybody must be committed. I was in Senegal when they did their elections.”
“Not much of technology was involved, but every citizen of Senegal was committed to doing what was right and the elections happened to be one of the best elections I’ve observed in Africa and outside Africa. So every citizen must be ready to do what is right. For the Electoral Commission and the security, they must make sure that whatever they do, the citizens must have confidence in them,” Jonathan added.
The West African Elders Forum will continue to engage with stakeholders and remain in Ghana post-election to address any emerging issues.
Reporting by Clankson Acheampong in Accra
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