NCCE inaugurates Inter-Party Dialogue Committee in Tema

The National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE) has inaugurated its Inter-Party Dialogue Committee (IPDC) for the Tema Metropolis.

As part of their mandate, the IPDC will monitor key violations including the distribution of money, and other gifts to the electorate, declaration of election results by political parties and their members, defacing of posters, biased media reportage, campaign violence, use of provocative and abusive language by political parties and their members, the rigging of elections, and abuse of incumbency.

The Tema Metropolitan IPDC, chaired by Reverend Francis Guggisberg Tetteh, Chairman, Tema District Council of Churches, is made up of representatives of the parliamentary candidates for Tema East and Tema West, Electoral Commission, religious groups, youth groups, women groups, Persons With Disabilities (PWDs), Metropolitan Security Taskforce, NCCE and the Media.

Mr Isaac Kwame Antwi, Tema Metro Director of NCCE, said the 21- member committee had the responsibility of ensuring that petty disputes that could degenerate into electoral violence were settled amicably.

Mr Antwi said, “we don’t want to misunderstand among the parties to degenerate into violence and chaos at the polling stations and the Metro”.

Alhaji Shehu A. Kadiri, Tema Metropolitan Coordinating Director, who sworn the Committee members into office, charged them to see their work as a noble one and be committed to it.

Alhaji Kadiri asked the Committee to stick to the standards of mediation by calling people to order and fostering unity among the candidates and their supporters, stressing that such confusions must come from political parties and their members.

The IPDC has set November 29 for a parliamentary debate for Tema East candidates and December 2 for Tema Central to enable the candidates to answer some pertinent questions from voters.