Politicians urged not to create fear among the electorate

Members of New Ghanaian Movement (NGM) on Thursday blamed politicians for the fear being generated among the electorate as the date for December 7 polls draws closer.      "Ghana has got to a stage where we should not be afraid when it comes to elections, but the fear is caused by the politicians themselves especially leading members of ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) and main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC)," Ms Ayishetu Addy, NGM Deputy General Secretary told Ghana News Agency in Accra.      She expressed concern about the manner some of the politicians incited their supporters without considering their safety and national security adding, "It is wrong for politicians to issue threats here and there."      Ms Addy said elections were about issues and ideas and that since unemployment continued to be a major problem, the politicians should tell the nation how they would solve it and not to insult opponents.      "We want to tell them that the country is not for them and that if they really want our votes they should provide solutions to national problems, offer alternatives for acceleration of development and improve our living condition," she said.      Ms Addy said politics of insults, use of abusive language would not help the country but rather create confusion and divisions among individuals in the society and retard progress of the nation.      She advised politicians to stop sounding threats of violence, stressing, "if there is violence or turmoil, they are not going to be saved," stressing that: "the politicians need our vote and support to annex political power, so they must count for our votes."      Ms Addy called on political leaders to champion the cause of peace and tolerance during and after Election 2008 by constantly advising their supporters on the need to tolerate views of other political party members and understand that even though they belonged to different political parties they were not enemies.      Referring to the youth and women as the two groups that were easily deceived, she advised the youth, to be wise and discerning what their future would be and which political party could help them to achieve their goals.      She said even though the youth could play an active role for the nation to have peaceful elections because they formed greater percentage of the nation's population, there was the need for political leaders to exhibit a high sense of maturity in their campaign to avoid troubles.      Ms Addy urged Christians not only to pray for peaceful elections, but should be bold to call political leaders to order especially those in Government.      "We should all pray to God to intervene," she said adding, "in 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004, God heard our prayers as both the winner and the loser could not explain how the results happened in that way."      Ms Addy appealed to traditional and religious leaders to join hands in the campaign to ensure free, fair and peaceful election on December 7. GNA