African Union High Representative for Silencing the Guns and Former Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the UN Office for West Africa and Sahel, His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, has urged the government to undertake a critical assessment of post-election violence.
According to Dr. Ibn Chambas, it is critical to ensure the effective and comprehensive implementation of laws against violence, most especially the Anti-Vigilantism and related offence Act 999 of 2019, to help improve democracy.
He called for the full operationalisation of the Affirmative Action Law before the 2028 general elections, and stressed the need for mitigating the production of counterfeit ballot papers by improving the security features of the ballot papers by the Electoral Commission.
Speaking during the Post 2024 Elections Evaluation Dialogue in Koforidua on July 2, Dr Ibn Chambas indicated that the current respective age requirement for contesting for the role of President should be lowered to pave the way for young persons who constitute a significant portion of the population.
“The government should ensure the effective and comprehensive implementation of laws against violence, especially the Anti-Vigilantism and related Offences Act 999 of 2019. The government should ensure that the Affirmative Action Law is fully operationalised, especially for the 2028 elections. It’s important we take a critical assessment of how we can stop post-election violence that consistently rears its head in every election.”
