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The West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP – Ghana) has held a stakeholders’ meeting to review its indicators for the monitoring and gathering of information on the 2016 Elections.

Stakeholders drawn from public agencies, civil society organisations and political parties from some of the conflict prone areas such as Bunkpurugu and Bimbilla in the northern sector of the country, participated in the review meeting, held at Tamale, on Wednesday.

The 39 indicators were developed by WANEP – Ghana in collaboration with other stakeholders working in the area of democratic development, and they were used to monitor the 2012 Elections.

Mr Albert Yelyang, the National Network Coordinator of WANEP – Ghana said the review of the indicators became necessary because the dynamics of the 2012 Elections might be different from the 2016 polls.

The indicators covered issues such as Poverty and Unemployment; the Use of State Resources by Incumbents during Campaigns, Unequal Access to State Media, Lack of Confidence in Institutions that Manage Elections, Presence of Illegal Voters, Use of Unofficial Security, amongst others.  

Mr Yelyang said the monitoring of the 2016 Elections based on the indicators would lead to identifying areas that might be threats and reporting such threats to appropriate authorities to take actions to avoid them (threats) to ensure successful polls.

He said WANEP – Ghana would also use the monitoring reports to advise political parties and the media on how to go about their activities to avoid conflicts, while promoting the country’s democratic dispensation.

The security would rely on its existing early warning mechanisms and people in the communities to undertake the monitoring based on the indicators.

Alhaji Abdul Razak Saani, the Northern Regional Director of the National Commission for Civic Education, who was a participant, urged political parties to operate within the confines of the country’s laws and respect State institutions in the discharge of their duties to ensure peaceful elections.

Alhaji Saani said there was the need for politicians to uphold the truth at all times and abhor things that did not represent the interest of the State.

He, therefore, challenged the leadership of political parties in the country to run a mature political campaign by discouraging their followers from maligning their political opponents.

Meanwhile, there would be another review meeting in Accra to finally settle on the indicators to use to monitor the elections.