The Very Reverend Solomon Bruce, Superintendent Minister in-charge of the Old Tafo Wesley Methodist Church, has proposed the postponement of the 2020 General Election as the country strived to contain the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.
Ghana is expected to go to the polls in December, this year, but, according to the Minister, the electoral processes regarding the massing up of voters could “trigger a sharp increase in the pandemic”.
“What about if we do not hold elections this year and instead hold it next year?” the Minister quizzed, and questioned the wisdom in going ahead with the polls at the expense of the safety and life of the citizenry.
Ghana recorded 125 new confirmed cases of the pandemic on Monday, May 25, bringing the total case count to 6,808 and 32 deaths, according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS) portal on COVID-19.
This ranks the country as one of those in the sub-Saharan Africa to have recorded the most confirmed cases, having tested 197,194 persons with a positivity rate of 3.44.
Very Rev. Bruce, sharing his views on whether or not Ghana should proceed with the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Old Tafo in the Ashanti Region, said the rising incidence of the disease was worrying.
He indicated that the behaviour of the electorate concerning elections was highly unpredictable, explaining that postponing the polls was necessary in order to allow for the nation to effectively manage the pandemic.
“For now, there is no remedy for COVID-19. As a result, we need not rush unnecessarily for the sake of politics,” he emphasized, stressing that care must be taken to avoid plunging the country into further calamities.
The Methodist Minister took a swipe at Ghanaian politicians for being preoccupied with elections and power.
“All that our politicians think of is about winning the next elections,” he noted.
Democracy, he noted, was about serving the interest and welfare of the people, therefore, the church and clergy also had the mandate to add their voices to issues pertaining to the nation’s development processes.
