Parties must stop playing politics with vigilantism – Maxwell Akunyire

A member of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Communications Team for the Chiana-Paga Constituency, Maxwell Akunyire, has challenged Ghana’s political parties to be more honest about their role in the persistence of political vigilantism, arguing that partisan interests continue to undermine efforts to address the menace.

According to him, political parties cannot publicly condemn vigilantism while allegedly maintaining informal groups that perform security-related roles during elections.

Speaking on the Big Mike Breakfast Show on Wednesday, August 26, Akunyire said the challenge becomes particularly evident during the collation of election results, where disagreements over figures can heighten tensions.

He observed that while violence may be limited at individual polling stations, tensions can escalate during the subsequent collation of results.

Akunyire argued that political parties would have less reason to rely on so-called strong men if they focused on convincing voters through their policies and programmes.

“If we are able to get our people to understand what exactly we stand for, I don’t think we’ll need any strong men to lead us to the ballot boxes to get the people to buy into our ideas,” he said.

He also questioned the willingness of the two major political parties to acknowledge the existence of internal security arrangements, saying political actors must first admit the problem before they can effectively address it.

“We don’t admit to the fact that we have these people,” he said.

On electoral reforms, Akunyire proposed the introduction of an electronic system for transmitting election results immediately after votes are counted at polling stations.

“My suggestion is that from the polling station level, we should have electronic collation so that immediately you finish counting at the polling station level, the results at that polling station level are scanned and sent to headquarters,” he said.

He believes such a system would reduce pressure at physical collation centres, as political parties and electoral authorities would already have copies of results from individual polling stations.

Akunyire further called on political parties to stop treating the enforcement of the Vigilantism and Related Offences Act, 2019, as a partisan issue.

“We need to get to a point that we will say, ‘Oh, let’s stop it,’ and we will stop it, not to pretend stopping it,” he said.

He maintained that state institutions must act on intelligence concerning groups or individuals who may be rebranding themselves to evade the law.

Akunyire urged political actors to move beyond accusations and counter-accusations and take collective responsibility for preventing political vigilantism from undermining Ghana’s electoral peace and democratic development.

Mike 105.3FM I Navrongo | Elizabeth Apusaama

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