An Accra High Court has ordered the Electoral Commission to give Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, leader of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) the opportunity to rectify errors on his nomination form.
Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom sued the Chairman of the Electoral Commission Mrs. Charlotte Osei and the Electoral Commission as the first and second respondents respectively after he was disqualified from contesting the December 7 presidential election.
Dr. Nduom filed an ex-parte motion at the High Court to compel the Electoral Commission to reinstate him as a presidential candidate for the 2016 elections, after attempts to get the Commission to rescind its decision failed.
Dr. Nduom was one of 13 aspirants whose nominations were rejected by the EC for various reasons. The Electoral Commission had said one of the people who endorsed his candidature allegedly endorsed the forms in two different districts.
After both parties have made their case in court, presiding Judge Justice Kyei Baffuor set October 28, 2016 to give his ruling on the case.
In court today, Justice Kyei Baffour noted that the Electoral Commission breached its own rules by not allowing Dr. Nduom to make corrections to his nomination form when the EC identified the anomalies.
He therefore gave judgment in favour of Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom but did not award cost to any of the parties.
An excited Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom calls the decision a victory for democracy.
“Everybody should know that we took this action because the situation is beyond me: it is not about Papa Kwesi Nduom or the Progressive People’s Party. This is a matter of importance for our democracy, for our freedom and importantly human rights, that has been restored today,” he told journalists.
Counsel for Dr. Nduom, Ayikoi Otoo said the EC boss exposed herself as “inexperience” when she failed to call the parties to rectify the anomalies, something that was done by her predecessor, Dr. Afari Gyan.
By Isaac Essel |3news.com|Ghana
