Flagbearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings has also sued the Electoral Commission for disqualifying her from the December 7 general elections.
This comes on the back of the suit filed by the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) at the court in protest of their disqualification.
Nana Konadu who is fighting the case with the party and her running mate added the Attorney General to the case are seeking an “interlocutory injunction, prohibiting and restraining” the Electoral Commission and its agents from going ahead with the balloting of presidential candidate until the court settles the matter.
She also wants the court to stop the EC from doing the following:
- posting any notices at any constituency centres, specifying the names of candidates purportedly nominated and the persons who have proposed and supported each of the purportedly nominated candidates for the 2016 presidential election, without including name of the 2nd application;
- Allocating symbols and colours to the purportedly nominated candidates for the 2016 presidential election, without allocating symbols and colours to the 2nd applicant; and
- Publishing any notices of poll in the Gazette and in places in constituencies around the country with respect to the 2016 presidential election, without including the name of the 2nd applicant.
The Court is however expected to hear the case on Monday, October 24, 2016.
In another suit, Nana Konadu and her NDP are praying the court to declare as illegal the deadline the EC set for receiving nominations and “a further declaration that the EC erred in law when it decided not to accept the applicants nomination thereby wrongfully and illegal disqualifying the applicants from contesting in the 2016 presidential elections.”
They are also seeking an order quashing the EC’s decision not to accept Konadu’s nominations and an order compelling the EC to accept her nomination and to include her name on the ballot for the 2016 presidential election.
Nana Konadu was disqualified with 12 other presidential nominees because they failed to meet some requirements of the electoral laws ahead of the December polls.
[contextly_sidebar id=”MeeQipa6wivGIfBCSAdBN7Su2MyfuDIJ”]In explaining the NDP’s disqualification, the EC explained that, “The Commission is unable to accept Mrs. Rawlings’ nomination because the number of subscribers to her forms did not meet the requirements of Regulation 7 (2) (b) of CI 94. One subscriber on page 89 of her nomination forms is not a validly registered voter, and illegally registered twice and so is on the Exclusion list of multiple voters. Details are Salifu Abdulai District: Nanumba South, Voter ID no: 6617004814 (28.3.2012), Voter ID no: 2126900022 (04.8.2014).”
But the party had threatened to “strip the commission naked” if it does not accept their flagbearer back into the race.
The Deputy Communications Director of the NDP, Ernest Owusu Bempah had earlier told Citi News, that Nana Konadu’s disqualification is a deliberate attempt by the EC to prevent the NDP from contesting in the elections.
“This is a deliberate attempt by Charlotte Osei and the EC to disqualify us… they should clap for themselves for tarnishing the image of our multiparty democracy in the country, and deliberately running into the pockets of the government of the day and trying to please their pay masters,” Mr Bempah told Richard Sky on Eyewitness News.
Owusu Bempah challenged the Electoral Commission’s reasons for his party’s disqualification stating that, the EC must provide additional information on the basis for their disqualification.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin