A joint United Nations (UN) and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) high level delegation on Thursday, October 29, 2020, called on the Minister for the Interior, Mr. Ambrose Dery at his office in Accra ahead of the December 7, Presidential and Parliamentary elections.
The delegation, which is on election mission to Ghana, had Dr. Ibn Chambers, Special representative of the UN Secretary General (SRSG) for West Africa and the Sahel and Head of the United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), H.E. Gana Wakil, ECOWAS Resident Representative in Ghana and Charles Abani, UN resident Coordinator for Ghana as leading members.
The objective of the mission, was to engage the Ministry on preparation towards the election in respect of security so as to ensure a credible and peaceful one.
The mission applauded the efforts of the Government in maintaining Ghana as a beacon of democracy in the region and admonished Ghana to sustain it.
It underscored the importance of security and its contribution to peaceful election and charged the security agencies to exhibit professionalism in creating a secured environment for peaceful, credible, transparent and inclusive elections.
Mr. Ambrose Dery, Minister for the Interior, indicated that, H.E President Akufo-Addo was committed to making this year’s elections one of the best as far as fairness, peace and all the factors needed for a free and fair election was concerned.
He assured that, the security agencies would be provided with the resources and policy direction as stipulated by the constituency to enable them execute their mandate devoid of political influences.
“one of the strengths of our electoral system is the fact that we do allow the technical operatives to lead the process during the election.
If you look at the constitution, the Government and for that matter, the Ministry of the Interior is to provide resources and policy direction for the security agencies but operational matters are left to the technical heads”. He said.
Other officers present at the meeting were Mrs. Adelaide Anno-Kumi, Chief Director, Ministry of the Interior, Mr. Kwame Auah Takyi, Comptroller-General, Ghana Immigration Services, Mr. George Amoah, Acting Executive Secretary of National Peace Council and Mr. Boadu-Pepra of the Ghana Police Service.
The rest are Nana Chinbuah, Head of UNDP Democratic Governance and Peacebuilding Cluster, Falmata Liman, UNOWAS Political Advisor, James Aji UNOWAS Political Advisor, Serge Nanourou, UNOWAS Political Affairs/Electoral Officer and Williams Moki Lifongo, UNOWAS Senior Human Rights Advisor.
