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Socioserve-Ghana (SSG), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) based in the Eastern Region, has partnered two others sister organizations to roll out a two-year project which would ensure a peaceful and incident-free pre and post-election period in the country.

The Global Action for Women Empowerment (GLOWA) and Development Gateway International (De-GAIN) based in the Volta and Greater Accra Regions respectively, are the other collaborators.

Mr. John Obuaba, the Project Coordinator, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview at Akosombo in the Eastern Region that the project named "Promoting electoral integrity in Ghana-2016 and beyond," has already taken off since last January and is expected to end by February 2018.

The goal among others, is to focus on efforts to ensure that international standards and global norms governing elections are adhered to in Ghana before, during and the after the 2016 general elections, to achieve best outcomes.

“The project is expected to promote a violence-free, transparent and fair election cycle” Mr Obuaba added.

It seeks to do this by strengthening cooperation among parties by activating Inter-Party Dialogue Committees whiles creating platforms for the political parties, especially parliamentary candidates, to engage in issue-based campaigning, he added.

Mr. Obuaba said the project receiving counterpart funding from the European Union, is targeting political parties and local citizen groups in 15 constituencies from five regions of Ghana -Volta, Eastern, Ashanti, Central and Western Regions.

He said the coalition, after identifying the media as a critical component in ensuring violence-free election, has engaged the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA), to train media professionals and to monitor radio stations to avoid doing things likely to spark violence

Other strategies, the project has adopted also include creating a common platform for political party representatives at the constituency and regional levels to renounce violence and to cooperate with different electoral stakeholders to resolve election-related conflicts.

“It would also train political youth groups to become peace ambassadors within their communities and provide citizens with the knowledge, skills as well as opportunities needed to assess candidates based on policy issues and to make well- informed voting decisions, without let, hindrance or intimidation, the project coordinator said.