READY TO MEET TASK OF POLICING CAMPAIGNS — DERY (PAGE 15)

THE Volta Regional Police Commander, Mr Bernard Dery, has assured the people in the region of the preparedness of the security agencies to meet the task of policing political campaigns to ensure a peaceful, free and fair elections.
He said 3000 security personnel would be required in the Volta Region alone to man polling stations, do patrol duties and part as a stand-by force in addition to the normal duty of crime prevention.
Mr Dery was addressing 150 police personnel drawn from the Volta and Eastern regions at a two-day election monitoring seminar in Ho. It was sponsored jointly by the British High Commission and the National Election Security Task Force.
According to Mr Dery, the Volta Region was a deciding ground for all political parties many of whom were proclaiming victory in the region and posing a challenge to the National Democratic Congress (NDC) which had claimed victory in the region in past elections.
He said out of 1,095 polling stations, 300 were flashpoints and that there was the need to handle issues carefully against the background of a rugged topography of the region.
Mr Dery said the police would create an enabling environment of transparency, neutrality and credibility.
He also cautioned security personnel not to wear the logo of any political party and also try to
prevent clashes between those who would celebrate victory and others who might grieve after the declaration of election results.
The regional commander announced that the period March 10, 2008 to March 10, 2009 had been declared as operational year and that it had been divided into three phases — before, during and after elections.
He said the structure of the region as the longest in the country created problems and needed to be tackled with adequate supply of communication equipment.
Other topics to be discussed at the two-day seminar are” Roles of security agencies in elections”, “ Handling Media in elections”, “ Role of Civil Society in elections”, “ Democracy, Elections and Human Rights” and “ Managing Conflicts in Elections”.