<<Print>>

Former President John Dramani Mahama ahead of the 2020 general election has charged all communities in the country to ensure that their votes on the Election Day are counted against all odds as enshrined in the constitution.

According to him, the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will work to have a peaceful election but asserted that the ruling Akufo-Addo led NPP government will unleash their vigilantes on the day of election, looking at what transpired in the voter registration exercise.

Speaking to a gathering in Keta Krachi in the Oti Region, former President John Mahama said that due to the foreseen circumstance in the 2020 general election, every community should defend their democratic rights.

“We will work to have peaceful elections but there is a threat that the ruling government will unleash their vigilantes on the Election Day and so I have said that our communities should defend their democratic rights,” he charged.

He added that he will not be the one to bring violence in the 2020 general election as a leader of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) as his demeanor is well-known to be a man of peace, modesty and humility since he joined politics in 1996, but insisted there is a need for every Ghanaian citizen to protect the constitution of which the voting process is part of it.

“If I live in the polling station and you come and attempt to snatch our ballot box or to disrupt the election process, as Ghanaian citizens the constitution says you must protect the constitution and the voting process is a part of the constitutional remits and so if you attempt to disrupt the voting process the community has the authority to arrest you and so I believe that every community should be on its guard because your votes must count,” he insisted.

He reiterated that “if anybody attempt to disrupt the voting process or to undermine the constitutional rights to vote, the community has a right to prevent the person from doing that”.

He, therefore, assured that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) will not deploy vigilantes as they want the will of the people to be known and heard; thus, he asked the intercessors in the church to pray for peaceful election as the country goes to the polls in December 7, 2020.

“We are not going to deploy vigilantes and all that; we want the will of the people to be known and to be heard and so we pray for peaceful elections and as our intercessors, I will ask you to add that to your prayer topics all the time when you offer supplications to God, that he will continue to favor this nation and he will continue to bless us with peace and unity and that we shall be one people and we shall work together for the peace and prosperity of our nation,” he averred.