Flagbearer of the Progressive People’s Party(PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, says those who wanted his party out of the race for the presidency on December 7, have failed. His comments come shortly after the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the High Court, which stated that the EC was wrong in disqualifying him.
In that High Court ruling, the Commission was asked to allow Dr. Nduom to correct the supposed errors on his nomination forms, after which a determination would be made by the Commission on whether he can be admitted on the ballot.
But the Commission disagreed with the High Court ruling, insisting that they were right in disqualifying Dr. Nduom and eleven other aspirants, for which reason it went to the Supreme Court, to quash the High Court ruling; and also to make a declaration to cover all the other suits.
The Supreme Court justices ordered the Commission to rather extend the nomination period to the close of Tuesday, November,8 2016, for all disqualified presidential aspirants. It also ordered a suspension of all lawsuits challenging the EC’s disqualifications of flagbearers, for all those affected to amend the errors on their forms.
In explaining the judgment of the seven-member panel of Justices, the presiding Justice, Sophia Adinyira, said their decision was to enable the EC give hearing to all parties involved in the legal tussle over the qualification, due to limited time left for the election to be held.
Addressing party faithfuls in Accra via Google Hangout shortly after the ruling, Dr. Nduom, who is currently on a campaign tour at Tatale in the Northern Region, said his party is unrelenting in its efforts to sell its message to the electorate, with barely a month to election day.
“Some people who wanted to discourage us, who wanted us out of the race, who wanted our voices not to be heard; we want them to know that, they have not succeeded, they will not succeed, we will take our message directly to the people.”
Let’s work harder
The PPP Flagbearer further charged party members to work harder to secure a resounding victory in the December polls.
“We have lost some energy, some enthusiasm, let us build it back to where it was. We have lost one month. If we were in some other country, we should have been demanding that the election be delayed for another month because of what has been done to us.”
“Other political parties have gone to our supporters, and lied to the people that the PPP was no longer in the race; so now we need some time to go out there to get the message straight; and let people know the truth that whatever time is available to us, whether it is one week, two weeks, we will work hard so that the people will vote for us.”
A few minutes after the Supreme Court’s judgement, some party supporters gathered at the Coconut Groove Regency Hotel, which is one of Dr. Nduom’s several businesses, to celebrate the victory.
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