After months of propaganda, insults and personality attacks among others, Ghanaians went to the polls yesterday to elect a president and 275 parliamentarians to form the next government and legislature respectively.
Prior to the elections, there were trepidations among sections of the Ghanaian population, both home and abroad, with many thinking that violence could break out and disturb the peace we are enjoying.
What broke the camel's back was the manner Mrs. Charlotte Osei's Electoral Commission (EC) organised the special voting.
The development forced the various religious and civil society groups to call on well-meaning Ghanaians to devote their time to prayer, and call on the Almighty God to help maintain the peace the country is enjoying.
But as Publilius Syrus, a Latin writer, put it; “Where there is unity, there is always victory,” Ghanaians have won the day, as the elections went on peacefully yesterday.
The Chronicle, therefore, congratulates all Ghanaians for going through peaceful elections, demonstrating to all of Africa and the rest of the world that, indeed, when it comes to democracy, we are ahead.
Even though local and international observers have not, at the time of going to press yesterday, come out to give their final report, with regards to the elections, generally, the elections could be described as peaceful.
Some of the voters went to their polling stations as early as 9:00pm and 11:00pm the previous day, an indication of their determination to cast their ballots.
Voting started as early as 7:00am, with queues at almost all the 29,000 polling stations across the length and breadth of the country.
Aside a few pockets of disturbances, voters in the various polling stations waited patiently for their turn to cast their ballots, after which they left for their respective homes and monitored the radio for the outcome of the elections.
It must be noted that Ghanaians, right from the special voting exercise to the main elections, conducted themselves properly, by exercising patience, which is why we, at The Chronicle, are joining the rest of the world to say Ayekoo to all Ghanaians.
We applaud the Electoral Commission for a good job done. Initially, people did not have confidence in the Chairperson, Mrs. Charlotte Osei, to organise successful elections, but she seems to have proved her skeptics wrong.
After all the insults, backlash and names-calling, the EC boss and her team braved the storm and managed to organise the election, which have been peaceful and successful.
To the National Peace Council, Ghana for Peace, Security Warehouse, Christian Council of Ghana, Ghana Pentecostal Council, Muslims Mission, as well as other religious and civil society groups, which prayed for peaceful elections, we say congrats for their efforts.
The Chronicle cannot leave out the role personnel of the security agencies in the country played in ensuring peaceful elections.
But for them, the pockets of incidents, including attempts by some miscreants to snatch some ballot boxes at some polling stations, among other election malpractices, would have derailed the process.
But, whilst counting is still ongoing, Ghanaians must exhibit a high sense of tolerance and respect for democracy, which
Ghanaian Chronicle
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