The Deputy Chairperson of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Mrs Augustina Akumanyi, has called on political parties to conduct campaigns within the law, the prescribed code of conduct and based on issues and party manifestos. She said campaign messages which got personal stood the risk of starting or fuelling conflict and must be avoided. In an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra, Mrs Akumanyi said language which got personal because it involved comments on a person's physique or private life should be discouraged by party leadership. Mrs Akumanyi said to have peaceful and violence-free elections in December, all stakeholders in the electoral process needed to perform their roles effectively. That, she added, would ensure that conflicts which occurred would be normal and acts of violence emanating from them would be minimised and controlled. She named the stakeholders as the government, the political parties, the Electoral Commission (EC), the NCCE, civil society organisations, traditional and religious authorities, domestic observers and the media. "During the campaign period, all stakeholders must sensitise those within their reach to dwell on issues, seek redress to problems through dialogue and treat activists of opposing parties as competitors, not enemies," she said. "The police must keep the peace without fear or favour. They should give ample time to parties when conveying decisions on permits and other issues for compliance to avoid unfair treatment," she added. Mrs Akumanyi said if the elections were peaceful and violence-free, had no serious disputes and the results were generally acceptable, the next government's legitimacy would not be in doubt. On the other hand, if they were fraught with violent conflicts and disputes, their credibility would diminish and the resultant government would fight hard to legitimise itself. She urged Ghanaians not to consider peace as an end in itself but as a requirement for development. "Peace should not be seen merely as the absence of violence. Peace includes and involves the transformation of conflict and destructive interactions into more co-operative and constructive relationships. It is about a network of relationships through which differences are resolved to the satisfaction of all parties involved," she added. She advised the EC to, on election day, manage the process effectively to eliminate shortage of materials, a situation which could provoke reaction from voters. Party agents, she said, must be adequately trained before deploying them to polling stations, adding that ill-prepared or untrained agents could not perform efficiently. "The counting of ballots must be transparent, as provided for by the rules, to avoid disagreements and conflicts," she added. With regard to the announcement of collated results, Mrs Akumanyi said it should be done by the EC alone. "Political parties and media houses should desist from announcing collated results. Such announcements create tension and prepare the grounds for violence when official results are not favourable to a particular party or candidate," she emphasised. Source: Daily Graphic