The Reverend Dr Ebenezer Markwei, Head Pastor of Living Streams International, on Friday called on Ghanaians to demonstrate the highest level of tolerance while defending the country's integrity.
He said Ghanaians acknowledged the love and desire of politicians to serve their country, but they should recognise that "Ghana does not belong to them alone but to all of us. It would be very sad if their names go down in history as catalysts for mayhem, bloodshed and anarchy in this country.
"It is important for us all to realise that there is also the sovereign will of God, which sometimes overrides our individual desires, dreams and aspirations," he said in a statement on Election 2008, e-mailed to Ghana News Agency in Accra.
Rev. Markwei appealed to President John Agyekum Kufuor, to lead Ghana out of the looming disaster and the political morass.
He called on the Electoral Commission to continue to uphold its constitutional mandate as demonstrated so far, the Judiciary to exercise its role with the clear objective of placing Ghana first, upholding the sovereignty of the State and the security agencies to perform their duties without fear or bias.
"The media must be responsible in their reportage as they have a responsibility in preventing the situation from degenerating into unmanageable limits," he said.
Rev. Markwei commended Ghanaians for the achievements under democratic rule since 1992, saying "as long as a peaceful and open political process survives, we can all look forward to better times".
He pointed out that Election 2008 had been generally remarkable for civility and peace and commended all stakeholders for conducting a peaceful and mature election.
However, Rev. Markwei expressed concern about pockets of intimidation and actual violence towards citizens by agents of political parties saying; "this is sad".
He said Ghana had made great strides in building a united people, and, therefore, found it troubling that there was polarisation along ethnic lines, adding, "whereas we should all cherish our individual ethnic identities, we should be mindful that working as a united country is paramount".
Rev. Markwei noted that the 1992 Constitution allowed a limited contest between political parties representing different social interests and visions of development.
"We the citizens allow a definite period during which parties contend for our attention. Out of respect for us we expect that politicians would debate peacefully and with civility.
"For our part, citizens must devote precious time to listen to, understand and evaluate the different philosophies, programmes and projects on offer. Ultimately at the end of the designated campaign period, based on our evaluation we the citizens and we alone make informed choices about leadership.
"The candidate with the most popular programme is given control over our State resources to implement the programme under our scrutiny. When the people speak they must be heard. The possibility, therefore, of a protracted process of declaring a winner may lead to explosion and descend into chaos and anarchy, which we must avoid at all cost.
"We cannot, therefore, tolerate a situation in which political parties seek to reverse the fundamental relationship between citizens and political parties and to impose their agenda on us," he said.