Private security personnel wearing military uniforms creates fear

Election Watch Ghana has condemned the reported deployment of private security personnel dressed in military uniforms to accompany a political aspirant, calling on the National Democratic Congress to discipline any member found responsible. In a statement dated November 10, 2026, the organisation addressed an incident reported the previous day, in which an unnamed aspirant was allegedly escorted by individuals providing private security services while wearing military attire. The group drew the matter to the attention of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ghana Police Service, urging investigation and enforcement.

The concern is grounded in a specific feature of state authority. Military and police uniforms function as immediately legible signals of lawful power, and citizens respond to them accordingly, complying with instructions and deferring to presence in ways they would not with private individuals. When that signal is appropriated by personnel who hold no such authority, the compliance it produces is obtained under false pretences. In a political setting, where the purpose of an escort is to project strength rather than to maintain public order, the effect is intimidation achieved by impersonation. Ghana’s experience with party-affiliated vigilante groups, which prompted legislation criminalising such formations, makes the issue considerably more than a question of dress code.

Election Watch Ghana acknowledged that political aspirants and officials may legitimately make security arrangements where necessary, but insisted that such arrangements comply with the laws governing private security operations. “Private security personnel wearing military or other official state security uniforms can confuse the public, undermine confidence in legitimate security institutions and create an atmosphere of intimidation and fear,” the statement said. It warned that introducing private security resembling official state operations into party politics establishes a dangerous precedent at a time when the country is still working to dismantle unauthorised security structures. “We must guard against practices that could normalise political intimidation, misuse of security identities or unofficial security structures within political parties,” it added.

The organisation set out the prohibitions it wants the NDC to make explicit in its internal electoral rules: engaging private security personnel in uniforms reserved for recognised state institutions; using military insignia, badges, ranks or other official identifiers without lawful authorisation; establishing or deploying unofficial groups to accompany, protect or intimidate opponents on behalf of aspirants; and making security arrangements that generate fear or unnecessary tension among members, delegates, supporters or the public. Compliance, it argued, should be a fundamental requirement for every aspirant, with disciplinary consequences applied regardless of the individual’s standing within the party. That final qualification is the operative one, since the credibility of any sanction depends on whether it reaches those with influence.

The timing sharpened the warning. The NDC is preparing for its national executive elections in December, and the party’s internal contests have already produced friction, including the confrontation at the Central Regional office that required police intervention to separate the Regional Minister from the Regional Chairman. Contested delegate elections in an environment where aspirants travel with uniformed escorts create conditions in which a procedural dispute can escalate quickly, and the presence of apparent state authority that is in fact privately contracted complicates any subsequent attempt by genuine security agencies to restore order.

The organisation’s broader appeal was for early intervention rather than retrospective condemnation. “Authorities should act early to prevent such practices from becoming widespread or escalating into more serious security threats,” it said, calling for consistent enforcement of the regulations governing private security companies, particularly those concerning official identifiers. It also urged aspirants to campaign on ideas, policies and competence rather than displays of force. “Political ambition must never come before national security, public order and the rule of law,” the statement concluded. Whether that principle holds will be determined not by the language of the appeal but by whether the reported incident is investigated, its facts established, and consequences applied to whoever is found responsible.

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