NDC’s primaries: EC must take a cue

Violence rocked the primaries of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which was held Saturday and yesterday.

There were cases of attempted ballot box snatching in several places.
One person was arrested in the Nanton constituency in the Northern Region for attempting to snatch a ballot box while polling was still ongoing in the NDC primary Saturday.

The most notorious of the constituencies was the Ningo-Prampram constituency, where the 'father and son' contest turned violent.

In the Upper Manya Krobo constituency, supporters of defeated Bismark Tetteh Nyarko have rejected the results and are calling for fresh elections.

Registering their displeasure, the NDC youth in the area set vehicle tyres on fire and marched through the town chanting war songs.

Also, hundreds of NDC faithful who thronged polling stations to cast their votes could not find their names on the register.

Even some aspirants and national executives could not find their names on the voters’ register.

How that happened is yet to be explained to all those whose names were not on the register.

Anytime there is an election, there is bound to be a winner and a loser, or losers.
The spate of violence in the NDC’s primaries only goes to show the lack of trust in the electoral process or the security agencies’ ability to keep the peace during such electioneering periods.

Political parties and Ghana as a whole must firm up the laid-down procedures and processes to determine the outcome of disagreements or misunderstandings, instead of taking the law into their own hands.

Tensions are always high because we easily get carried away and let our emotions get the better part of us because our preferred candidate lost out or an opponent lost.
We should do away with the unnecessary arguments and debates that most often end up in fisticuffs that work against the peace of the elections.

After all, elections are not a life-and-death situation as some have painted them to be, but just an exercise of every human being’s inalienable right to choose a leader to manage their resources for the good of the people.
Coming events, they say, cast their shadow.

The Electoral Commission (EC), which is yet to pronounce on the way forward for the voters’ register, which is a bone of contention among political parties, must take a cue from happenings in the NDC primaries.