The workshop which sought to strengthen conflict resolution mechanism is to ensure that the current “winner-takes-all” syndrome in the country’s democratic dispensation is reformed by practicing multi-party democracy.

The workshop also stated that the devolution might be a better process if it follows the bottom up approach, as a lot of violence we see and the threats associated with change and elections because of the attachment that the very poor have with certain characters in the political game causing the violence, hence the cry for peace.

IDEG attributed the recurring turbulence of Ghana’s Presidential Election and the growing risk to peace and stability to the difficulty of managing the duopolistic power relationship satisfactorily within the existing ‘winner-takes-all’ framework of Executive Government.  As a result, political parties are prohibited from contesting local government elections and therefore have no share of Executive Power of the State and no influence whatsoever over its exercise in the economic and social spheres.

Furthermore, the framework has failed to promote inclusive development to the benefit of all citizens.

Presenting the five (5) Strategic Actions Proposal to the stakeholders at the workshop, a Senior Research Fellow at the IDEG; Dr. Kwasi Jonah mentioned the election of District Chief Executives, political parties participation at the district level elections, the abolition of government appointees, proportional representation of women participation in politics and the increase in District Common Fund from its current percentage to fifteen (15%) percent of the total revenue.

According to him, these proposals were envisaged to enhance election peacefully, improve accountability and exclusion and raise inclusiveness in the country’s democracy.

Dr.  Jonah further appealed to the general public to rally behind IDEG in order to achieve transformational change that will lift the country’s democracy to the next level.

He sighted that the objective of the proposal is to revive public interest and focus attention on the new initiative and proposals for mitigating the persistent threats to peaceful elections, good governance, stability of the multi party system and national cohesion.

He maintained that the proposal also sought to engage a process of social contract bargaining between the electorate, political parties and their candidates based on a multi-party participation in elections at the decentralized levels.

Dr. Kwasi Jonah said IDEG is committed to mobilize the electorate’s support to lobby candidates to commit to the implementation of the proposals for the Constitutional Reforms after the 2016 elections.