ER POLICE ASSURE POLITICAL PARTIES OF PEACEFUL ELECTIONS (PAGE 15)

THE Eastern Regional Police Commander, ACP George Amusah Anko-Bil, has assured leaders of the various political parties in the region that his outfit has properly schooled its men to ensure violence-free elections in the region in December.
He, however, asked the parties to report any misconduct on the part of any policeman, particularly those assigned to polling stations, to his outfit for immediate action to be taken to prevent any confusion or chaos at the polls.
ACP Anko-Bil gave the assurance in Koforidua on Tuesday at the inauguration of a task force that would be solely responsible for the December elections in the region.
The 12-member task force, which has ACP Anko-Bil as chairman, is drawn from the security services and the Information Services Department (ISD).
Present at the function were the Deputy Regional Police Commander, ACP D.N. Ampah Bennin; some senior police officers, officials of the National Commission for Civil Education (NCCE) and the Electoral Commission, as well as representatives of the various political parties in the region, which will also be involved in the process.
According to ACP Anko-Anoil, since it was not possible to deploy policemen to all polling stations, they would only be deployed at ‘flash points’ to pre-empt any confusion to avert violence.
He said this year’s elections had been dubbed the ‘final of finals’ because since the Fourth Republic, the two major parties had had the opportunity to finish two terms each and, therefore, a win for either of them this time would be crucial, hence the need to calm down passion in these “do-or-die” elections.
ACP Anko-Bil stated that the task force and the police in general were committed to ensuring peaceful elections and they would, therefore, learn from past elections and the peculiar encounters within the region, with the view to ameliorating their occurrence.
In answer to a question from Mr Julius Debrah, the Regional Chairman of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), as to whether personnel from the Community Police would also be deployed to the polling stations, ACP Anko-Bil replied in the negative and explained that they actually did not form part of the security forces but only assisted the police in the communities.
ACP Anko-Bil expressed the hope that the municipal and district assemblies would help in diverse ways to make the elections a success in the region.
Mr Emmanuel Quaye Sowah, the Regional Director of the NCCE, gave the assurance that his outfit would continue to educate the public on the elections and called for co-operation from stakeholders.