The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), has urged the electorates not to vote on tribal, ethnic, religious and gender lines on December 7. 

Instead, they should consider the competencies and integrity of the candidates. 

Adiza Gyenyenaa, the Berekum West District Director of the NCCE said, this indicated that that remained the surest way in which the development of the nation could be brought to the next level. 
 
She emphasised that vote buying undermined and remained inimical to the country’s growing democracy and pleaded with the electorates to be guarded against that bad practice. 

“The 1992 Constitution confines us by not letting anyone buy our conscience and vote with money on December 7,” she stated when speaking at a parliamentary dialogue the Commission organised at Jinijini, the District capital. 

It created a common platform for the two Parliamentary Candidates contesting the general election in the area to interact with and share their visions with the constituents to enable the electorates to make informed choices on December 7. 
 
They are Dr Kwaku Agyenim-Boateng, the incumbent New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament (MP) and Mr Dickson Kyere Duah, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the constituency. 
 
The dialogue sought further to increase the commitment of the candidates in undertaking issue-based campaigns and also to create awareness about political tolerance as well as the need for sustained peace, before, during and after the general elections. 
 
“Our sovereignty resides in the people of Ghana from whom the government derives its powers to operate and function,” Madam Gyengyenaa stated and advised the electorates to go all out in their numbers and exercise their franchise on Saturday. 
 
“If the electorates do not go to the polls to vote on December 7, nobody can walk to the Jubilee House and make him or herself as a President and the same thing applies to the House of Parliament,” Madam Gyengyenaa stated. 

She urged Ghanaians to uphold and defend constitutional rule and the sovereignty of the nation as the December 7 polls geared up. 
 
She said the 1992 Constitution mandated every Ghanaian to do so, and urged everybody to contribute to a peaceful election. 
 
Dr Agyenim-Boateng, the incumbent MP, assured the electorates that he would do more to improve infrastructure and urged them to vote to retain him as their MP, pledging to re-construct deplorable roads linking deprived communities in his next term. 
 
On his part, Mr Duah noted that the constituency lagged in development, and called on the electorates to vote for him, promising to provide scholarships to students, and agriculture inputs to the local farmers. 
 
Both candidates expressed appreciation to the NCCE for the dialogue that enabled them to highlight their visions for the electorates in the education, employment, health and road sectors as well as the economy.