Children Urged To Promote Peace In The Coming Elections

Some children in the Tamale Metropolis have advised their colleagues, who are below the voting age of 18, to desist from participating in the upcoming general elections. They said that would give a positive image to Ghana�s political system noting that it was against the law for minors to vote. Fuseini Abdul-Minu, a pupil of Gumani Methodist Junior High School noted that children should desist from being influenced by politicians when they had not attained the voting age stressing that such practice could bring chaos in the electoral system. He said such behaviours were tantamount to impersonation and an infringement on the electoral process and the right of the child. Rebecca Dahamani, also a pupil of Zagyuri, Anglican JHS, appealed to children and all meaning Ghanaians to see one another as brothers and sisters, who must co-exist peacefully stressing that the various political parties must also have unifying policies to promote a national agenda and not partisan politics as was the case now. The children raised these issues in Tamale on Thursday during the Children�s Assembly, an annual event that brings together children from various backgrounds to socialize and share experiences to improve their lives. It was organised by Markaz Al Bishara in collaboration with the Christian�s Children Fund of Canada (CCFC), both child rights NGOs. It was on the theme: �Peaceful elections 2012, the role of the child�. Mrs. Gifty Akosua Baka, Country Director of the CCFC, said children formed the bedrock of the society who would one day grow to become adults in society and advised them to constructively promote and champion the peace in the country through their peer groups and within their communities to ensure that the coming elections were conducted in a peaceful manner. She said children could serve as peer educators, who could talk to their parents and community members about the need to maintain and promote peace now, during and after the general elections in December. Mrs. Baka said, during violence as experienced in most countries, children suffered the most of the casualties and urged them to consistently demand from their parents and duty bearers to observe the peace. She advised them not to engage in any offensive arguments on political issues, adding that �You have political rights to participate in the political discourse but do it peacefully and not engage in any illegality�.