The Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Laary Bimi, says the state should provide security personnel as bodyguards for all the presidential candidates for the 2008 general elections. The provision of bodyguards for the candidates, irrespective of their political parties, is paramount for their protection before and after the upcoming elections," he said, adding: "Presidential candidates so far nominated should be given equal protection by the state." Mr. Bimi was speaking at a news briefing in answer to whether there is the need for the presidential candidates to be provided bodyguards by the state. The conference, held in Accra on Friday by the NCCE, sought to remind the various stakeholders of their roles in ensuring free, fair, transparent and peaceful polls in December this year. Mr Bimi argued that providing bodyguards for the candidates is appropriate in view of the recent assassination of Benazir Bhutto, former Pakistani Prime Minister, after a rally in Pakistan last December. However, "before providing such bodyguards, it is important that the state consults the candidates, and there should not be any discrimination in the number of guards or motorcades to be provided each candidate. "There shouldn't be a situation where a candidate is given a greater number of guards or motorcades than the other. They should be provided bodyguards with equal strength. He advised them to desist from wading into chieftaincy matters which may cause conflicts, saying, "there are institutions already set up to address such issues". He noted that the country now has a plethora and mosaic of chieftaincy disputes, and as such, political leaders in their bid for votes should avoid issues that have to do with chieftaincy matters. Touching on chiefs and politics, he said that there is nothing the NCCE can do to prevent chiefs from engaging in open politics, but said that the Constitution forbids chiefs to engage in open politics. The Chairman advised political party leaders not to preempt or declare election results, saying "it is only the Chairman of the EC, who can declare the results of general elections in the country". Source: The Times