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Akufo-Addo government has been advised by Colonel Festus Aboagye (rtd), not to get the military anywhere close to where the citizens are going to cast their ballots in the upcoming 2020 general elections.

According to the Security Expert with the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping Centre, it will be chaotic for the country to deploy the military to the political scene as it happened during the voters’ registration exercise.

“On December 7, I would wish that we don’t get the military anywhere close to where the citizens are casting their ballots. They can be part of what the police call a rapid reaction force or patrols in order that confidence will be built among the population who will be encouraged to vote.”

“It is my personal opinion that some of the missions or tasks that we got the military to undertake and the way and manner in which the soldiers on the ground sought to undertake those tasks draws the military into the political battle space. This is not healthy that in this election when there is no provision in CI 126 for any form of pre-screening,” he said.

Speaking on Joy FM’s Morning Show on Tuesday, Col Festus Aboagye suggested that the military should rather be deployed as a supporting mechanism to the Police Service in their operations if their service is required.

He added that engaging the military in a democratic process will spell doom for the country as it has a recipe to foment the democratic gains made by the country.

“Any function which technically relates to EC work; inspection of ID cards, certification of identities are not the function of the election security team members. Theirs is to deal with security issues that emanate from the process not to be in the thick of it.”

“Ideally only police must be deployed at the static points where the elections will take place, that way we are protecting the military from getting involved in the politics of the country which has its dangers. Our history shows,” he explained.

He complained that the pockets of violence that characterised the just ended voters’ registration exercise were as a result of the deployment of soldiers to some parts of the country.