{"id":260535,"date":"2016-10-22T09:24:19","date_gmt":"2016-10-22T09:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=260535"},"modified":"2016-10-22T09:24:19","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T09:24:19","slug":"well-hold-presidential-debates-if-ec-resolves-court-issues-ncce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=260535","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;ll hold presidential debates if EC resolves court issues &#8211; NCCE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has said it still intends to organise a presidential debate ahead of the 2016 general elections.<\/p>\n<p>The Deputy Chair of the NCCE, Samuel Akuamoah, explained on <strong>Eyewitness News<\/strong> that the only thing holding back the NCCE\u2019s planned presidential debate is the controversy surrounding the Electoral Commission\u2019s (EC) disqualification of 13 presidential candidates.<\/p>\n<p>These disqualifications have culminated in\u00a0three lawsuits against the EC.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_260544\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-260544\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Mr.Samuel-AkuamoahDeputy-ChairmanOperations.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-260544\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/Mr.Samuel-AkuamoahDeputy-ChairmanOperations.jpg\" alt=\" Deputy Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Operations, Samuel Asare Akuamoah\" width=\"600\" height=\"428\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-260544\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Deputy Chairman of the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Operations, Samuel Asare Akuamoah<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>As result, Mr. Akuamoah indicated it cannot move ahead with its plans until the lawsuits are settled and the EC is settled on the number of presidential candidates ahead of the polls.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are going to engage the candidates but until we are certain of the timetable and the candidates involved, we cannot roll it out,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will hold it but it depends on the timetable of the Electoral Commission. When the Electoral Commission is settled on the number of candidates it has shortlisted finally and put on the ballot paper for the elections then we can go ahead and do out debates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Till then, Mr. Akuamoah insisted that the NCCE &#8220;cannot do the debate among candidates when others are contesting that they have been excluded, when we have stated from the onset at awe are going to make it inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But he assured that the NCCE was still on course to hold presidential debates saying, \u201cwe have it on our plan and we are going to do it. If the plan is not ready to roll out, why do we discuss it in the public domain\u2026 we have planned, we are prepared to hold this presidential dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Lawsuits against\u00a0the EC<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Following the disqualification of the 13 presidential aspirants for anomalies in their registration forms, three of the associated parties have resorted to the law courts to fight against the perceived illegal disqualifications.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_249735\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-249735\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Nduom-EC-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-249735\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Nduom-EC-1.jpg\" alt=\"(PPP Flagbearer, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, and EC Chair, Charlotte Osei).\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-249735\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(PPP Flagbearer, Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, and EC Chair, Charlotte Osei).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom-led Progressive People\u2019s Party\u00a0<span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/10\/14\/ppp-sues-ec-seeks-injunction-on-balloting-of-candidates\/\">filed a lawsuit<\/a><\/strong><\/span> seeking an order of prohibition to restrain the EC from proceeding with balloting for position of presidential candidates for the 7th December elections.<\/p>\n<p>The disqualified presidential nominee of the Great Consolidated Popular Party, Dr. Henry Herbert Lartey also <span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/10\/17\/gcpp-sues-ec-over-disqualification\/\">filed an injunction suit<\/a><\/strong><\/span> seeking to stop all electoral processes ahead of the December elections.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Nana-Konadu-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-253474\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Nana-Konadu-1.jpg\" alt=\"nana-konadu\" width=\"600\" height=\"337\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Flagbearer of the \u00a0National Democratic Party (NDP), Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings\u00a0<span style=\"color: #666699;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #666699;\" href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/10\/17\/nana-konadu-goes-to-court-to-compel-ec-to-accept-nomination\/\">also sued<\/a><\/strong><\/span> the EC\u00a0for disqualifying her from the December 7 general elections,\u00a0adding the Attorney General to the lawsuit which is seeking an interlocutory injunction, prohibiting and retraining the Commission and its agents from going ahead with the balloting of presidential candidate until the court settles the matter.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) has said it still intends to organise a presidential debate ahead of the 2016 general elections. The Deputy Chair of the NCCE, Samuel Akuamoah, explained on Eyewitness News that the only thing holding back the NCCE\u2019s planned presidential debate is the controversy surrounding the Electoral Commission\u2019s (EC) disqualification [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":259896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6177,2356,3,5101,12868],"class_list":["post-260535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slider-1","tag-electoral-commission-of-ghana","tag-ghana-elections","tag-ghana-news","tag-ncce","tag-presidential-debate-ghana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=260535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/259896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=260535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=260535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=260535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}