Mrs Charlotte Osei, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), has urged both its permanent and temporal staff to put Ghana first in their work to ensure a successful general election.
Mrs Osei warned them not to put any candidate or political party first, stating: “Put Ghana first, do what is right. We all know the right processes; follow the laws and the right processes.
“What the country requires of us is to do our work to the best of our ability,” Mrs Osei stated in Accra during a day’s prayer and fasting session for peaceful elections.
It was organised by the EC and the National Commission for Civic Education, (NCCE) in collaboration with the Retired Staff Association of the EC.
“In the plethora of voices, beating war drums, making all kinds of negative pronouncements about Ghana because of elections, everybody is afraid. And everybody is shouting we need peace. What we are saying today is that there will be a lifting up. There will be no war in Ghana. There will be peace in Ghana,” she said.
Mrs Osei urged Ghanaians to safeguard the peace and stability the nation was enjoying now and not allow politics to derail it.
She said there were 15.7 million people on the voters register and 28,992 polling stations nationwide.
Mrs Osei said the Commission had deployed 70,709 biometric verification devices (BVDs), 148,000 EC personnel and 64,000 security personnel for the conduct of the election.
She noted that there were over 400 international observers and 10,000 local observers on the ground to monitor the election.
She expressed gratitude to God for how far he had brought the Commission and prayed that the grace of God would see the staff through.
Dr Lawrence Tetteh, a renowned international Evangelist, who delivered the sermon, said God would give Ghana a President on December 7.
He urged Ghanaians to be praying for the EC to enable it to live up to its mandate.
He also encouraged Mrs Osei and her team of Commissioners to be firm and just in the performance of their duties.
Dr Tetteh further advised Mrs Osei to remain focused and not allow offences to distract her attention.
He called on the two leading candidates in the presidential election, President John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) to condemn their followers who insulted people.
Dr Tetteh offered special prayers for Mrs Osei and the entire Commission for divine grace and empowerment to enable members to deliver on their mandate.
The service was attended by Ms Georgina Opoku Amankwah, EC Deputy Chairman; Hajia Sa-Adatu Maida and Mrs Pauline Adobea Dadzawa, both Commissioners at the EC, and Dr Alfred Oko Vanderpuije, the Accra Mayor.
Source: GNA
