An Accra High Court, presided over by Justice Kyei Baffour, has dismissed an application by the Electoral Commission (EC) asking him to recuse himself from the case in which the National Democratic Party (NDP), is challenging the disqualification of its Flagbearer, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings and her running mate, from participating in the 2016 presidential election.
According to Justice Kyei Baffour, the grounds on which the applicant asked him to recuse himself were frivolous and lacked merit.
The judge’s decision followed an application by the lawyers of the EC, praying him to recuse himself due to a possible bias considering his ruling in a similar case involving the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) Flagbearer, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom.
The lawyers for the EC in their argument, indicated that, the judge has some interest in the matter due to some words he had used in making a ruling in the PPP case.
Konadu fights EC in court
Nana Konadu together with her party, and her running mate, sued the Electoral Commission, with the Attorney General, over her disqualification from the presidential race.
They were seeking an “interlocutory injunction, prohibiting and restraining” the Electoral Commission and its agents, from going ahead with the balloting of presidential candidates, until the court settles the matter.
She also prayed the court to stop the EC from doing the following:
Posting any notices at any constituency centres, specifying the names of candidates purportedly nominated and the persons who have proposed and supported each of the purportedly nominated candidates for the 2016 presidential election, without including name of the 2nd application;
Allocating symbols and colours to the purportedly nominated candidates for the 2016 presidential election, without allocating symbols and colours to the 2nd applicant; and
Publishing any notices of poll in the Gazette and in places in constituencies around the country with respect to the 2016 presidential election, without including the name of the 2nd applicant.
The NDP flagbearer in another suit, prayed the court to declare as illegal the deadline the EC set for receiving nominations and “a further declaration that the EC erred in law, when it decided not to accept the applicant’s nomination thereby wrongfully and illegally disqualifying the applicant, from contesting in the 2016 presidential elections.”
They are also seeking an order quashing the EC’s decision not to accept Konadu’s nominations, and an order compelling the EC to accept her nomination and to include her name on the ballot for the 2016 presidential election.
Nana Konadu was disqualified with 11 other presidential nominees, because they largely committed errors in the process of filing their nomination forms.
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