The All People’s Congress (APC) has said that they will still pursue legal actions against the New Patriotic Party (NPP) for plagiarizing their manifesto despite the disqualification of their flagbearer by the Electoral Commission.
The APC in a statement released Monday said they will sue the “ideologically bankrupt” NPP for “clear thievery” of their 2016 Manifesto which was launched on Thursday, 6th October 2016.
“The NPP leadership has exhibited highly gross academic dishonesty. In fact the now Kalyppo People’s Party is a political group of Kalypo Incompetence and academic idiosy”, part of the statement said.
However, some hours after the release, the EC disqualified 12 presidential aspirants including the flagbearer of the APC, Hassan Ayariga from the 2016 elections for several reasons.
The EC Chairperson told journalists Monday afternoon: “The Commission is unable to accept Dr. Ayariga’s nomination for the following reasons: (a). The candidate did not provide evidence on his statutory declaration as to his hometown or residence in the constituency as per the legal requirements. (b). Two subscribers to Dr. Ayariga’s nominations also subscribed for another presidential candidate.
This is in breach of Regulation 7(4) of CI 94.
“The implication is that the two subscribers are disqualified and therefore, Dr. Ayariga does not have the requisite number of subscribers under Regulation 7(2) (b) of CI 94. The details of the duplicate subscribers are as follows: Abaako Issifu (page 103) Voter ID number 2988006876 PS code: J110202; Abudu Ayuba (page 95), Voter ID number 6303005554 PS code: H200201.
“In addition, the signatures of both voters are different on the two nomination forms. This raises questions as to the legitimacy of those signatures. We will refer the matter of the possible forgeries of these signatures to the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney General for investigation and prosecution in line with the following sections of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29): Section 211: Perjury Section 248: making false declaration etc. for office or voting; Section 251: Deceiving a public officer Section 256: Corruption, Intimidation and impersonation in respect of election.”
Click here and read why EC disqualified the 13 candidates
But spokesperson for the APC, Razak Adu-Poku in an interview noted that the EC has no right to disqualify their flagbearer who according to him met all the requirements set by the commission.
He maintained that the EC chair, Charlotte Osei cannot conduct the 2016 elections without the APC party and so should rescind her decision as soon as possible or face their wrath.
“Madam Osei is really taking us for granted but we in the APC will never allow that to happen because the 2016 election cannot be visible without the APC and so she should think twice and rescind her decision or we take legal action against her and we will still pursue legal actions against the NPP because we are optimistic that after the court, we shall come out victorious” he insisted.
He further called on the EC chair to immediately make public procedures the commission used to check for the four Presidential Candidates who qualified.
Join GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
