The Very Reverend Paul Saa-Dade Ennin SMA, President of the Conference of Major Superiors Religious-Ghana (CMSR-GH), says the Conference will engage the Electoral Commission (EC) for its members to serve as monitors for the 2024 elections.
“This is part of our 2024 elections plan. Apart from praying as reverends and sisters, we want to do something concrete as well. We are training our members so that during the elections, we can have accreditations to deploy them.”
“We have members in every part of this country. We believe when our members are involved, we will be able to obtain firsthand information on the happenings in the election process to notify the stakeholders accordingly,” he said.
Rev. Ennin said this at the end of a five-day preliminary biannual CMSR-GH meeting, March 11-15, 2014, at the Arnold Jassen Spirituality Centre at Bortianor Hills, Accra.
The CMSR-GH is an umbrella body of leaders of reverend fathers, brothers and sisters of congregations of the Catholic Church in Ghana.
Rev. Ennin urged stakeholders in elections, particularly security agencies, political parties, the media, Peace Council and the Electoral Commission, to do all in their power to prevent any actions or inactions that could create violence.
The Reverend also advised members of the public not to allow themselves to be used as conduit for violence by politicians before, during and after the elections.
“To the citizens and to voters, any person or group of persons that is prepared to kill in the pursuit of power can neither be trusted nor be entrusted with power.
“No one must lose his or her life in the exercise of his or her constitutional right to vote to determine who governs him or her,” he added.
Rev. Ennin condemned the act of vote buying in elections, saying, persons who received money or goodies to vote were selling their integrity to those who offered them those favours.
He said they would also be embarking on series of activities to campaign against illegal mining and land sales in the country.