While elections are an intense contest, Dr Mohammed Marzuq Abubakari, Personal Assistant to the Chief Imam, Sheikh Dr Osman Nuhu Sharubutu, has urged the electorate to understand “it’s not an act of warfare but unity in diversity”.

Clearly stated in Article 21 of the 1992 Constitution, the journalist noted every citizen had the right to support whatever political party they resonated with.

However, “every political actor, every member of every political party, every sympathiser, every supporter, should have one interest – the interest of peace for mother Ghana,” he advocated.

Speaking on the theme: ‘Championing peaceful elections: The role of all Ghanaians in ensuring true leadership for democratic stability and advancement in Ghana’, the lecturer and researcher posited election 2024 was “another opportunity for all Ghanaians to reaffirm our commitment to the core foundation of constitution and order, and good governance”.

He appealed to the electorate to see the peaceful conduct of the December 7 presidential and parliamentary elections as “a civic responsibility and patriotic duty”.

Safeguarding Ghana’s peace and stability in the Fourth Republic, he emphasised, was not just the duty of leaders.

“We [citizens] would have to contribute our quota and hold the leadership responsible for them to do what is expected of the Republic of Ghana,” he said.

As “Ghana remains a multiparty democratic state,” he said the peaceful transfer of power must be the heartfelt concern of all citizens “political or apolitical”.

“We want an election that will leave Ghana in peace for sound governance, not in pieces for conflict management and that calls for a collective responsibility,” he doubled down, praying: “Peace be unto all of us.”