The Propaganda Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) says politicians must desist from the use of inflammatory language that could trigger electoral violence, especially, in the lead-up to the polls. Richard Quashigah, who was guest on Joy FM’s current affairs discussion programme Newsfile, said: “Largely political actors will have to be careful in their choice of words… because inflammatory language obviously plays on the human emotions that people lose their rationality as a result of what they hear and then they are compelled to do the untoward.” Mr Quashigah referred to statements by kingpins of the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) in the run-up to the recent by-election at Atiwa in the Eastern Region that the Bamba Boys, a supposed vigilante group associated with the opposition NPP, would storm Atiwa to meet another vigilante group of the NDC, the Azorka Boys, "boot-for-boot". Quashigah was also of the view that perhaps a second look could be given police presence at polling stations during elections, arguing that if they are appropriately armed such as with rubber bullets and taser-guns or perhaps pistols, they would be better equipped to nib trouble in the bud than to send them to polling stations unarmed and when the peace is threatened, then armed security taskforce or patrol men would be called in to quell the situation. NPP Chairman Jake Obetsebi Lamptey told Joy FM on August 31, the day of by-election that he had heard reports that at least one person was killed in the constituency. He confessed he had not been there personally to confirm for himself. Mr Quashiga said such tendencies would also derail efforts to conduct free and fair elections in the country. “So if for instance, the NPP and the NDC will all learn how to choose their words… we will not be heightening the political tension unnecessarily and unduly. Sometimes these things are done for political advantage,” he said. Responding to the suggestions, a former Information Minister during the Kufuor administration, Dan Kweku Botwe, said whilst he could not explain why some of his colleagues would raise such false alarms, there was every reason to suspect there had been killings in Atiwa. According to him, the police reportedly fired teargas to disperse a crowd that had mounted a road-block at Abomosu where a vehicle of NDC's National Women's Organiser, Anita De-Souza had allegedly run into a crowd of NPP supporters. The teargas reportedly struck some of the women unconscious, a situation the locals interpreted as deaths, Mr Botwe said. Mr Botwe wondered why the polls were punctuated with so much violence when over 1200 police officers had been deployed there to maintain law and order. Touching on reports that the police at the various polling stations were unarmed although a group of heavily-built men patrolled the constituency wielding arms – including small axes, - Mr Botwe said the police must handle future elections better. He is also expecting the national executive committee of his party to disband the so-called Bamba Boys because apart from its illegality, Bamba (NPP National Organiser), who claim to have founded the group, does not have any boys. He alleged that while the NDC's Azorka Boys were molesting people at Atiwa, the promised Bamba Boys were missing in action and said all such groups should be disbanded for the sake of peace and to allow the police the room to operate. The Coalition of Election Observers (CODEO) has blamed aspects of the violence in the constituency to police inaction but the Director of Police Public Affairs, DSP Kwesi Ofori, who joined the programme via phone, said the intention of the police was to demonstrate the “democratic policing philosophy” of ensuring that the service did not use a high-handed approach to control violence in the constituency. He said the polls could even have been scuttled had the police started shooting to ward off trouble makers. But he conceded that perhaps the Inter Party Advisory Committee together with the Electoral Commission might want to re-look the rules and suggest improved ways for policing the ballots and ensuring peace during elections. Story by Fiifi Koomson/Myjoyonline.com/Ghana