The Electoral Commission (EC) has said it cannot be ordered by a court to accept the nomination forms of the presidential nominee of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.
According to the lawyer for the EC, Thaddeus Sory, the EC is an independent body therefore it cannot take instructions from any other body.
Sory said this during the hearing in which the PPP is praying the court to restrain the Commission from proceeding with balloting for positions for presidential candidates ahead of the 2016 polls.
The PPP is also challenging the EC’s decision to disqualify its presidential aspirant, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, from the presidential race.
Background
Dr. Nduom was disqualified along with 12 other presidential aspirants after anomalies were cited in his filed nomination forms.
At the last hearing on October 20, the court granted an application by the EC to abridge the time for the hearing of the injunction suit from going ahead with the processes to conduct elections in December.
According to its writ, the PPP was seeking an order of prohibition to restrain the EC from proceeding with balloting for position of presidential candidates for the 7th December elections.
The plaintiff is also seeking “…a further order directed against the 1st Respondent in her capacity as Returning Officer for Presidential elections to grant the Applicant the opportunity to amend and alter the one anomaly found in his nomination papers as well as accept his nomination papers as amended or altered to enable him contest as a Presidential Candidate for the 7th December 2016 elections.”
The suit has Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom as the exparte applicant, Charlotte Osei, the EC Chairperson, as the first respondent, and the EC as the second respondent.
The writ noted that, “Hon. J. Ayikoi Otoo, Counsel for and on behalf of the applicant, will move this Honourable Court praying for an order for Judicial Review by way of Certiorari to bring to this Court the decision of the Respondents dated 10th October, 2016, which disqualified the Applicant as a Presidential Candidate for the 2016 General Elections, for purposes of having same quashed upon the grounds of… (1) Breach of the rules of natural justice (2) Error apparent on the face of the record and (3) Failing to live the requirement as imposed by law.”
Prior to this court action, Dr. Nduom had met with the EC boss to get her to rescind her decision, but the meeting ended with no hope for the renowned entrepreneur who was making a third and last attempt at the presidency.
Source: citifmonline.com
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so, this means that December 7 poll is going to be like they cannot be ordered by the people who voted? hmmm Ghana, God help us, i think Ghanaians are lucking.
The EC is supposed to be resolute. Take firm decisions and stand by them. That is what I see them doing and they must be given the free hand. Remember the logo saga. People did not understand why the EC should change the logo, are they not using it? You would expect this same EC one day to declare your candidate winner one day. Would you be happy if another party engaged lawyers to compel to EC to reverse that declaration? Allow institutions to work.
Please Read this!!!! The best thing is to make sure that the Pink Sheets are filled and signed in the presence of all the voters IMMEDIATELY after the counting. It is not enough to open your eyes during the counting only to leave the pooling station for some unscrupulous, hired polling station returning officer trained in the act of falsifying figures to record different figures after bribing the party agents.
NDC WILL LOOSE THIS ELECTION BIG TIME
Charlotte Osei is taking the EC on a dangerous trajectory... Too many legal challenges....
NDC is best known for using the State Resources, money, cars, houses to buy the conscience of the Directors and workers at EC office. They don't care the effects of these actions on the Ghanaian economy. So EC will not act in fairness before, during and after election. This is the problem the Country is facing. Ghanaians should watch EC carefully. NPP should use the Supreme Court to outwit any plans NDC and EC will use to rig the election. Ballot papers and Pink Sheets designs will all be given to NDC to make their copies before they are even printed. NPP should not trust anyone in the EC office. Ballot papers and Pink Sheet should be printed in UK and if possible colours be changed to outwit all the NDC plans
Lawyer for the EC was unprepared and unserious in court. What was he talking about. The EC is not above the law. Dr. Nduom has a good case. Charlotte Osei is vindictive!
NPPigs. Losers!
"According to the lawyer for the EC, Thaddeus Sory, the EC is an independent body therefore it cannot take instructions from any other body". If this is true why should EC respond to the court at all in the first place. Why then did EC complied to the directions of the court to annul those who used NHIS card to register. I am very sorry for Sory if he had really argued like that.
Please, why then have you not done the balloting for the prez candidate if nothing would change? What insolence!