A Decade of national infrastructure for peace. Assessing the role of The National Peace Council in Ghanaian elections

Abstract

This study focuses on national infrastructure for peace and elections. The study assesses the role played by the National Peace Council (NPC) in promoting peace during elections in Ghana. The main aim of the study is to research into how well the activities and mechanisms of the NPC promoted peace in the recent election. It also shows the challenges that affect the NPC’s promo-tion of peace during elections. Moreover, the study highlights the specific activities which the NPC used to promote peace in the elections. To achieved its aims the study used the semi-structured interview methods to ascertain the perspectives of informants from three groups name-ly the NPC, the political parties in Ghana and public-students group. The concepts used in the study includes peacebuilding, local or ‘national’ ownership and infrastructure for peace. The findings of the study indicate that the activities and mechanisms of the NPC promoted peace during the elections. Also, the study discovered from informant’s perspective that, the vio-lence that characterises the elections in Ghana is attributed to factors related to the Ghanaian po-litical culture and political policies that obstruct peace work during elections. The study therefore suggests that, peacebuilding requires the collaboration and cooperation of all peace stakeholders from all levels of the society to develop mechanism that deals with conflict through non-violent means. Further, it shows the importance of building national infrastructures for peace that is tasked with structuring mechanisms which are known to the people to achieve democratic peace and stability.