The National Peace Council (NPC) has begun a dialogue process with the political parties towards peaceful elections in 2012. A maiden meeting held between the NPC and representatives of the political parties at Dodowa in the Dangme West District in the Greater Accra Region, called on politicians to avoid intemperate language and other acts that have the potential of undermining the peace. The meeting further advised politicians to refrain from indulging in ethnocentrism because it was detrimental to national peace and unity. The media were also prevailed upon not to give vent to intemperate language used by politicians and fan ethnic sentiments. The meeting was attended by representatives of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the People’s National Convention (PNC), Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), Democratic People’s Party (DPP) and the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP). According to the organisers, invitations were extended to all the political parties to attend the meeting sponsored by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The acting Chairman of the NPC and Ameer and Missionary in charge of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission in Ghana, Maulvi Dr Wahab Adam, atated that it was critical to begin the dialogue process early, given the civil conflicts that had engulfed some neighbouring countries as a result of electoral disputes. “We are very fortunate as a nation to have political parties meet and talk about the common interest of the nation. We are here to build trust among the various political parties and make sure that whatever we do or say will make Ghana more peaceful, united, developed and respected,” he said. In a presentation on, “Ghana’s Election 2012 – Opportunities, challenges and the way forward”, a senior lecturer at the Political Science Department of the University of Ghana, Dr Kumi Ansa-Koi, said it was good for political parties to meet and deliberate on critical issues that had the tendency to undermine national peace. He said Election 2012 promised to be more critical than previous elections because it would be a tight race, stressing, “We should avoid the mistakes we made in the last election.” Dr Ansa-Koi said it was important for Ghana to make its elections free, fair, transparent and peaceful, while avoiding the pitfalls and bad examples in some neighbouring countries. He stressed the need for the nation to take full responsibility for the funding of its elections, since mortgaging that responsibility to foreign donors could be detrimental to its democratic governance. In another presentation on, “Politics, conflicts, peace and security issues in the Ghanaian context”, a former Chief Director of the Ministry of the Interior, Mr Edwin Barnes, identified the misuse of incumbency advantage, lack of trust in the electoral process, the use of intemperate language in the media and the winner-takes-all syndrome as some of the causes of conflict. He urged the media to help promote development, while avoiding the politicisation of issues. Some representatives of the political parties, especially those without representation in Parliament, made a strong case for a level playing field in respect of funding to deepen Ghana’s fledgling democracy. Some of them expressed concern over the nomination fees for parliamentary and presidential candidates fixed by the Electoral Commission (EC), describing them as exorbitant and having the potential to disenfranchise some aspirants. Source: Daily Graphic