For adding new errors to the originally detected one, the Electoral Commission will lose in court if sued by any of the political parties that has been given up to 5pm Tuesday, 8 November to correct mistakes made on the nomination forms of their flag bearers, former Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament Prof Mike Ocquaye has said.
“You gave reasons for disqualifying someone, is that not so? For that matter you have to know that you have defined the parameters of the basis for disqualification … and that is the basis on which you must continue to act. If you have gone to court and you have lost and the court says that go and let them correct those things, you cannot go and bring a fresh charge. So, if you do that it will be what in law we call perambulation – it is like moving about looking for fault.
“The error that the EC charged them with ab initio that they published in full, they cannot go beyond those errors by law. If they try it and they take them to court, they’ll lose,” Prof Ocquaye told Naa Dedei Tettey on 12Live on Class91.3FM.
The EC detected the new errors following a Supreme Court ruling that ordered the election management body to allow the disqualified flag bearers to correct their mistakes and be accepted back into the race.
Per the new errors detected, the flag bearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Dr Edward Mahama will need to correct 303 errors on his nomination forms if he is to find his face on the ballot paper for this year’s presidential race.
Dr Mahama who was disqualified over four mistakes now has been confronted with an additional 299 more.
Meanwhile, 33 new “irregularities” have been detected on the presidential nomination forms of the National Democratic Party’s flag bearer Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings.
The Electoral Commission has described those errors as “concerns and discrepancies” which the former First Lady must correct before the Tuesday, 5pm deadline if she should qualify to run in this year’s presidential race.
On October 10, the EC disqualified Mrs Rawlings over one discrepancy but following a ruling by the Supreme Court to allow the disqualified aspirants to correct their errors, the election management member said it has found more errors which need correcting. The new errors have to do with different signatures of the subscribers on the nomination forms.
The NDP in a statement, however, said: “This is not right. This cannot be legal. This is a clear violation of our human rights.” “We reject this trick of the EC. We reject this clear attempt at victimisation by the EC”.
“The EC has shown its hand, that it is actuated and driven, not by a desire to deliver a world-class election in Ghana, but simply to hand the presidency to a selected candidate.” “We are calling upon the EC to immediately desist [from] its oppressive tactics and with immediate effect reverse this illegal demand of us; else we would have no option but to return to court,” the NDP warned.
Also, the Progressive People’s Party’s errors have increased from 1 to 105 while that of the APC has shot up from 2 to 95.
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