EC defends decision to go to Supreme Court

Charlotte Osei - EC Chair
Charlotte Osei – EC Chair

The Electoral Commission (EC) has defended its decision to go to the Supreme Court over the ruling reversing its disqualification of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) presidential aspirant, saying, it is in the interest of the nation’s democracy.

The election management board had disqualified the PPP’s candidate, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom on the basis of errors on his nomination forms but an Accra High Court ruled that, he should be given the opportunity to correct these.

Mr. Yaw Opoku, the Sunyani Municipal Electoral Officer, said “there are more issues involved” and that the Commission’s decision must not be misconstrued.

He gave the assurance that the legal tussle was not going to derail the December 07 polls.

He was speaking at a two-day training workshop held in Abesim, near Sunyani, for reporters and stringers of the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in five regions – Brong-Ahafo, Ashanti, Northern, Upper East and Upper West.

The goal was to build their capacity for effective coverage of the presidential and parliamentary polls.

It comes under the “GNA Tracks Election 2016 Project”, funded by GOIL, the state oil company and CIMG 2015 Petroleum Company of the year. 

The project seeks to sensitize the electorate on the various issues raised by political parties, the elections management body and other governance institutions.

It aims at ensuring gender and social inclusion in national politics and to provide voice for the youth, vulnerable groups, opinion leaders and the broader spectrum of the society, and to contribute to the achievement of peaceful polls.

Another objective of the project is to create a platform to dissect the manifestoes of all political parties and provide in-depth analysis of each thematic area to the electorate to enable them to make an informed judgment.

Mr. Opoku, who spoke on “Electoral reporting: key elements of C. I. 94”, said the EC would abide by the Apex Court’s ruling.

He took the participants through various activities and programmes, undertaken as part of preparations towards the conduct of free, transparent and credible polls the outcome would be accepted by everybody.

He repeated the warning to electoral officers that they could face prosecution for any act of negligence on their part, which undermined the smooth conduct of the election.

Source: GNA

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