SUPREME COURT ORDERS EC; ALLOW DISQUALIFIED
CANDIDATES TO MAKE CORRECTIONS
The Supreme Court has
ordered the EC to allow all 12 disqualified candidates to correct errors on
their nomination forms, errors that formed the basis for their
disqualification.
In a unanimous decision read by presiding judge Justice
Sophia Adinyira, the apex court ordered the EC to extend
the nomination period for another 24 hours to allow all the is qualified
candidates to correct their errors.
Starting from Monday and ending Tuesday, the EC is to
invite the aggrieved aspirants and afford them the chance to make necessary
corrections.
The judgement freezes all other five suits in which
presidential candidates are challenging the disqualification. The candidates
were disqualified after the EC said it found anomalies on the presidential
nomination forms.
The propriety of the anomalies is at the heart
several court suits challenging the decision.
The main anomaly was that some voters who endorsed the
nomination forms were either not qualified voters or that they endorsed more
than one presidential candidate contrary to Public Regulations on Elections
(C.I 94).
But the candidates argued there was no way they could
have known a voter was not qualified nor were they aware that any of the
prescribed 432 endorsers had signed up for the other candidate.
While the EC described the anomalies as statutory
offence punishable by disqualification, several of the 12 disqualified
presidential candidates have called it clerical errors that can be easily
corrected.
PPP Presidential candidate Dr. Nduom was the first to
secure a favourable ruling at the High Court which ordered that the EC should
allow Dr. Nduom to correct his mistakes and reinstate him into the race.
Dissatisfied, the EC proceeded to the Supreme Court for
clarity on the legal value of an error found on a presidential candidate's
nomination forms, but the Apex court has ruled in favour of the PPP.
credit - myjoyonline.com
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