Details

As Ghanaians prepared themselves to elect a new President and members of Parliament in the 2008 General Elections on December 7, various stakeholders emerged with the objective of contributing to the electoral process. The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung as a political foundation which seeks to promote the development of democratic governance in Ghana through its partners such as the Ministry of Interior, TEPPCON, CIKOD and National House of Chiefs made a contribution in diverse ways: in voter education as well as promotion of peace before, during and after the elections across the country. Much of the work concentrated on Northern Ghana which is considered as being most vulnerable and dominant on the map of past electoral violence in the country.

The December 7 elections were conducted in a peaceful atmosphere without any of the anticipated violence which characterized previous elections. Two questions are consequently posed, are Ghanaians becoming more politically matured as well as tolerant to dissenting views? Or did the security services deter perpetrators of these election related crimes? It is based on these questions that, the Ministry of Interior with the support of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung is organising an evaluation workshop with the objectives of finding answers to the above questions as to assess what the stakeholders did during the December 7 elections but failed to do in previous elections and vice versa. The workshop will document the process as well as experience gained to improve on the future elections especially the December 28 Presidential Elections run-off.

The workshop will take place as follows:

Date: 17th to 19th December 2008

Venue: Gariba Lodge, Tamale

Participants:

• Representatives of Political Parties (NDC, NPP. CPP, PNC).
• Members of the Security Services (Military, Police Service, Fire Service, Immigration service, Custom Excise and Preventive Service, Prison Service, Bureau of National Investigation)
• Members of the Regional Peace Council
• Members of Regional Elections Taskforce
• National Electoral Commission
• National Commission of Civic Education
• Media
• Selected opinion leaders