The biggest threat to election 2016 is our 'language' - Dr. Aning

With barely three months to Ghana’s 2016 general elections, it has emerged that “the issue of language is potentially the most dangerous threat to this year’s elections”, thus according to the Director of Research at the Kofi Annan Peacekeeping and Training Center (KAIPTC).

Dr. Kwesi Aning further indicated that political parties have flouted inherent laws and regulations intended to guide their utterances, especially communicators of those parties.

He said a research by the KAIPTC showed that “it is politically profitable to be perceived to be abusive and threatening. Your chances of landing a ministerial position are actually much higher if you’re perceived to be one of the people who are tough and threatening, which is contrary to the principles and values and norms that underpin the political party system in this country.

“So there seem to be an inherent contradiction between what the political parties claim they want to do and what is inherent in their manifestoes and what their important supporters do and it is that lacuna that is contributing to creating that politics of fear and withdrawal.”

Dr. Anning was speaking in an interview on TV3’s New Day on the brouhaha surrounding the outgoing Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana and the National Peace Council and other major factors that bother on Ghana’s political landscape.

He bemoaned the lack of will power on the part of leaders of political parties to punish persons who go contrary to expected decorous language especially in the political space.

He also cautioned the media to be circumspect in the content they churn out especially in this season when politicians may try to use all kinds of means to canvass for votes.