The National Peace Council (NPC) has done well by identifying at least 36 critical hotspots across the country as places where electoral violence could erupt during the December polls.
The council says it has, so far, selected 26 of the hotspots, where it will have engagements with the parliamentary candidates and electorates on political tolerance and solicit their inputs into how to resolve tensions.
The Ghanaian Times does not begrudge the NPC, for selecting the 26 out of the total number because the paper believes the NPC knows what it is about and can be trusted for good results.
However, the paper believes that engagements regarding election-related violence should be held in all the 275 constituencies in the country.
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It is an axiom that Ghanaians are peaceful people, yet when it comes to elections, certain fanatical political party members and supporters can do the unthinkable.
Even places hitherto unknown for politically-related violence have now become notorious for electoral violence.
Note that the NPC marks Awutu Senya East as one such places.
It's an open secret that it is the political parties and incumbent Members of Parliament (MPs) as well as Parliamentary Candidates (PCs) who are behind the electoral violence.
However, when they mount platforms they present themselves as angels.
The bane of the whole situation is that politicians have become super humans and untouchables to the extent that even some of their family members and other cronies can violate the law and go scot-free.
The simple truth is that politics has the potential to destroy nations and the evidences are all over the place, especially in Africa.
What usually bring about the chaos are elections, which are sine qua non in democracies.
It is sad that in Africa, all the politicians think they and their parties only should win elections even when the reality proves the contrary.
Thus, in the lead-up to the elections, they raise all manner of issues to prepare the ground for the untoward.
This attitude intoxicates some party members and supporters to the extent that they would always have reason(s) for their loss and misbehaviour, and the reason is the mischief one party employed to win the elections.
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It is more worrying that some groups in certain constituencies have cultivated the habit of provoking electoral violence just on the basis that they themselves (if they are contestants), their preferred candidates or parties have lost elections and so they react with violence, a situation that has caused some constituencies to be classified electoral hotspots.
Since it is not everyone in such constituencies who supports the violence, there is the need to educate residents of such places to be aware of what to avoid and what to protect.
It is therefore appropriate the Council wishes to promote peace in the upcoming elections by holding public awareness campaigns, particularly in all hotspots.
All the efforts of the NPC to ensure peace in the run-up to the elections and beyond would come to nought, if at the end of the day, the law doesn't bite.
Therefore, there is the need for the law to work and politicians must save the country their interference in the prosecution of electoral violence offenders, no matter who is involved.
Every effort is needed to preserve the peace in the country before, during and after the 2024 elections.
