Ms. Eileen Goody Gans-Lartey, an Assistant Project Officer of the Institute, said the nation should be spared a general election characterized by anxiety, antagonism and tension. She was speaking at a forum organized at Tepa in the Ahafo-North District, under IDEG’s Mondelez International Cocoa Life Programme.

It brought together members of the Governance Issues Forum Network (GIFNet), a civil society organization, working to empower people in cocoa growing communities to demand improvement of their living conditions. Ms. Gans-Lartey reminded all key actors in the election to show good faith, play it fair and avoid anything unethical to protect the nation’s democratic credentials.

That, she indicated, would go a long way to assure the nation of a violent-free polls.

She asked the leadership of the political parties to insist that their followers conducted themselves well and desisted from any breaches of the law. She encouraged them to get all election-related disputes resolved through the appropriate legal channels.

Similar forums had earlier been held at Effiduase in the Sekyere-East District.

Ms. Gans-Lartey said given the critical importance of cocoa to the nation’s economy, there was every reason to give priority to the welfare of the cocoa farmer.

Policy-makers and duty-bearers should ensure that cocoa communities had the best of infrastructure and the right policy interventions introduced to motivate them to increase productivity.