The 17 presidential aspirants who submitted nomination forms to the Electoral Commission have seven nerve-wracking days to known if they would be on December 7 ballot papers.
Although 15 political parties and two independent aspirants successfully submitted forms on Thursday and Friday, the commission says it will need the next seven days to vet the forms it received.
“The submission of forms does not mean that their nominations have been accepted,” chairman of the Electoral Commission Charlotte Osei told journalists after receipt of nominations closed 5pm on September 30, 2016 for the December general elections.
“The commission has gone through the process of receiving the forms.” She underscored, “We will now vet the forms to make sure that they are in compliance with the legal requirements under the constitution and subsidiary legislation.”
She was emphatically clear that persons who fail to meet the necessary requirements would be dropped from the presidential race to the Flagstaff House.
“For the candidates who have met the legal requirements their nominations would be accepted, which means they would be on the ballot paper for the December 7 presidential election.”
The same rules, Charlotte Osei said, would be applicable to parliamentary aspirants across the country.
She indicated that hopefully the commission will “come out with official list of candidates who have met the legal requirements to be candidates for this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections”.
The balloting exercise will then follow the declaration of candidates who made it to EC’s final list.
On Thursday nine presidential aspirants walked in either by personally or by their representatives to submit their nomination forms to contest the December 7 polls.
They include; Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP); Akwesi Addai Odike of the United People’s Party (UPP); Kwesi Agyenim Boateng of the United Front Party (UFP); All People’s Congress (APC) represented by Hassan Ayariga; and Kofi Akpaloo of Independent People’s Party(IPP) in that order.
The rest are: John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC); Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP); Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) led by Akua Donkor; and Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) with Kwabena Adjei as its aspirant.
On Friday September 30, when receipt of nominations ended, those who submitted forms were: Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom’s Progressive People’s Party (PPP); Unity Development System Party (UDSP) led by WO1 Richard Nixon Tetteh; Dr. Henry Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP); Ivor Kobina Greenstreet of the Convention People’s Party (CPP); and People’s National Convention (PNC) with Dr. Edward Mahama as the candidate respectively.
The rest are: two independent candidates – Jacob Osei Yeboah and Kwame Asiedu Walker -; with Thomas Ward Brew of the Democratic People’s Party being the last to submit forms.
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