Ghana’s bishops appeal for peace after contentious election 

December 17, 2020 CNA Daily News News Briefs 0 Print

Credit: ESB Professional / Shutterstock.

CNA Staff, Dec 18, 2020 / 12:42 am (CNA).- The Catholic bishops of Ghana have called for peace amid unrest following national elections earlier this month, which saw the reelection of the incumbent president, though the president’s challenger has yet to concede the election.

“Aware that in every competition there are bound to be winners and losers, we wish to call on all stakeholders to exhibit maturity in accepting both defeat and victory. In this way, reactions to any of the two conditions would be measured, modest and charitable towards one another,” Archbishop Philip Naameh of Tamale wrote Dec. 16 on behalf of the conference.

Voters in Ghana turned out for general and parliamentary elections Dec. 7. Incumbent Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) earned 51.3% of the vote, defeating John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), who vowed to contest the results. Mahama has previously served as Ghana’s president from 2012 to 2017.

Nearly 300 parliamentary seats across the country were also on the ballot in an election in which about 17 million Ghanaians were eligible to vote.

Police in Ghana recorded at least 60 instances of election-related violence between December 7-9, the National Election Security Taskforce (NESTF) reported December 10. Of those incidents, at least five resulted in deaths, all five of which involved firearms.

The bishops called on the leadership of the country’s Electoral Commission to “keep engaging all the political parties to ensure that all outstanding electoral issues and grievances are dealt with in the interest of the country,” and urged Ghana’s security agencies to be “very professional in the exercise of their duties in the aftermath of the declaration of the Presidential and Parliamentary results in order to protect life and property.”

The European Union Election Observation Mission in a Dec. 9 preliminary report concluded that though the elections “were organized in an efficient and transparent manner, and voters participated freely,” there were problems with the process.

These included state media favouring the ruling party and its presidential candidate; that certain procedures for the tabulation of votes were not always followed; and that “the secrecy of the vote was not always ensured, mainly due to poor layout of polling stations.”

Akufo-Addo has made ending dependence on western aid a focal point of his tenure as president, while remaining open to investment from China.

As a long-standing tradition, Akufo-Addo and Mahama signed a peace pact ahead of the election Dec. 4 as a commitment to non-violence, a promise to resort to judicial process to seek redress in case of disputes, and work towards eradicating vigilantism, ACI Africa reported.

President Akufo-Addo had requested that Christians pray during Dec. 6 church services for peaceful elections.

In an Advent Pastoral Letter issued ahead of the country’s general elections, Ghana’s bishops appealed for peace “before, during and after the December 7, 2020 elections.”

“We also appeal to all political parties, their leaders and supporters and indeed all Ghanaian citizens to live in peace and refrain from all activities that can disturb the peace of our dear nation before, during and after the elections,” they said in their November 29 collective statement.

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Church in DRC urges pressure on electoral commission over disputed vote

January 14, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan 14, 2019 / 10:51 am (CNA/EWTN News).- After a disputed presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the nation’s bishops have asked the UN Security Council to push the election commission to publish data from the vote.

Archbishop Marcel Utembi Tapa of Kisangani, president of the Congolese bishops’ conference, told the UN Jan. 11 that the commission’s announcement that opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi had won the Dec. 30 election did not correspond with the result of Catholic vote monitors.

The AP reported that Archbishop Utembi said publishing the data will enable the candidates to compare their numbers with the commission’s results.

“This might dispel doubts among the population as to the outcome and may therefore set minds at rest,” he added.

The Congolese bishops’ conference hopes that the UN Security Council will ask stakeholders to “prioritize the path of truth and peace while awaiting the outcome,” in case of a challenge.

The National Election Commission has announced that Tshisekedi had won the presidential election with 38.6 percent of the vote, just surpassing another opposition leader, former oil executive Martin Fayulu, who had 34.8 percent.

The two major opposition candidates both finished well ahead of former interior minister Emmanuel Ramazani Shadary, who had been officially backed by outgoing President Joseph Kabila but had never gained traction during the campaign.

The Congolese bishops’ conference did not say which candidate their data showed winning the vote. However, Fayulu has claimed that he is the rightful winner and has suggested that Tshisekedi had made a power-sharing deal with Kabila to rig the election.

Fayulu appealed to the Constitutional Court Jan. 12 asking for a recount of the votes.

The South African Development Community has called for the formation of a unity government, and backed Fayulu’s call for a recount.

The electoral commission has also announced that a pro-Kabila coalition won a majority in the lower house of the legislature.

Kabila has spent the last 17 years in power. While the nation’s term limits required the president to leave office in 2016, he refused to step down.

The bishops of the country, who have played a key role in promoting democracy, had helped mediate the 2016 New Year’s Eve Agreement between the country’s ruling political coalition and opposition leaders. Under the agreement Kabila was allowed to remain in office past his mandate, but agreed to step down after an election in 2018.

The bishops’ conference had also commissioned 40,000 election observers, who were sent to polling stations across the country to report on the election process.

In a Dec. 31 statement, the bishops’ conference had voiced concern about voting irregularities, including registered voters who were turned away from polling stations because their names were not on voting lists and election observers being expelled from polling stations by police officers.

Other election observers also reported irregularities including voting machine malfunctions, polling stations opening late, locations being changed on short notice, and an inability to cast votes privately, according to the BBC.

The bishops’ conference had delayed the release of its preliminary observation after internet connections and text message services were shut down across the country on Dec. 30.

Reuters has reported that observers from France and Belgium have also voiced doubts that Tshisekedi won the election, and three diplomats who had reviewed the Church’s observer mission data said Fayulu had won.

In his first remarks after his victory was announced, Tshisekedi promised to work closely with Kabila, AFP reported.

Tshisekedi, 55, leads the Union for Democracy and Social Progress, the country’s oldest and largest opposition party.

The 2018 election was a major test for the volatile nation, which has been plagued by political corruption, instability, and violence, and has never seen a peaceful transition of power since it gained independence in 1960.

At least four people have been killed so far in scattered protests of the election results.

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