According to the NDC, the endorsement of Mr. Ayariga is evidence that people recognize the President’s effort to transform the country.

Speaking to Citi News, the National Coordinator for President Mahama’s 2016 Campaign, Kofi Adams said the NDC welcomes him with open arms as Mr. Ayariga was entitled to his choice.

“If out of many people who are contesting, he finds President Mahama as the best to be able to keep this country, to continue to bring about development that is needed and to uplift the people of this country, why not? He has exercised that right as a person and also as the leader of a political party with his members,” Mr. Adams said.

Mr. Ayariga at Press Conference in Accra on Monday explained that the decision to endorse President John Mahama followed careful consideration of the attributes and competence of two presidential candidates who approached his APC for an endorsement.

The APC Flagbearer’s stance is evidence of President Mahama’s strong standing going into the election, according to Mr. Adams.

“It just goes to support that President Mahama is stronger, President Mahama has a vision that a lot of young people who are enterprising and who are willing to see a progressive Ghana will buy into.”

“The NDC welcomes everybody who will join in making sure that Ghana moves forward so if Ayariga has joined in making sure that Ghana moves, forward, why not? We welcome his support,” he added.

Split in APC over endorsements

Ayariga had over the weekend challenged the endorsement of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, by the APC’s General Secretary,  Razak Opoku and its running mate, Carl Bartels.

He said the two had been sacked by the party on Friday [November 25] after he discovered they had had a secret meeting with the NPP, against party rules.

But the two insisted at a press conference on Sunday that their decision was backed by the National Executive Committee of the party.

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The EC disqualified them due to errors on their nomination forms, but the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the commission to extend the nomination period and give the parties a hearing – which has been adhered to.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Head of Communication at the EC, Eric Kofi Dzakpasu, said “per the ruling of the Supreme Court, by the close of day on Wednesday, they [EC] should be able to come out with a decision on all the forms which we have received.”

They include Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP), Dr. Edward Mahama, of the People’s National Convention (PNC) among others.

“Most of the aspirants whose nominations were invalidated were able to collect their nomination on Monday, and on Tuesday; two candidates also came to pick their nomination forms so the commission waited for them to submit,” he added.

In all, ten political parties amended their nomination forms at the EC on Tuesday.

The Commission is also expected to conduct a ballot for the presidential candidates ahead of the December elections on Thursday November 10, 2016.

Background

Some of the 12 candidates including Dr. Nduom, PPP, Dr. Hassan Ayariga, APC, Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, NDC and two others who were disqualified from the presidential race, sued the EC demanding an order from the court to quash the commission’s decision.

The EC subsequently went to the Supreme Court after an Accra High ordered it to allow the PPP to correct errors on the forms of Dr. Nduom.

But the Supreme Court ordered the EC to give the disqualified candidates a hearing and also extend the nomination period for two days.

Parties storm EC to correct errors

The EC adhered to the Supreme Court’s order, but pointed out new errors on the nomination forms of the disqualified candidates.

Meanwhile, ten out of the 12 disqualified aspirants were able to amend their nomination forms at the close of the extended nomination period on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.

New errors in the interest of political parties

Mr. Dzakpasu also defended the decision by the commission to announce new errors it spotted on the nomination forms of the disqualified candidates.

“Per our understanding or the orders of the Supreme Court, we were to give the candidates a hearing, and in that hearing we were to give them the opportunity to identify the errors on their forms and then make the necessary corrections. So it was in all fairness to the candidates themselves that in the process of giving the hearing some of these infractions were identified and brought to their notice and as a matter of fact they saw it and accepted it in good faith and agreed that these are infractions, errors or emissions which can be corrected and therefore agreed to take it and correct.” He added.

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The hearing follows the Supreme Court’s granting of the EC’s request for an early date for the hearing of the case on Wednesday.

The EC went to the Supreme to seek clarity following the High Court’s ruling  that quashed its decision to disqualify the PPP’s presidential candidate.

Background

The EC rejected Dr. Nduom’s nomination claiming the number of subscribers to his forms did not meet the requirements of Regulation 7 (2) (b) of CI 94 [the law regulating the conduct of the 2016 elections].

The commission said one of his subscribers endorsed the form with different signatures in both portions of the nomination form, raising questions as to the legitimacy of one or both signatures.

But lawyers of the PPP argued that the EC did not give them the opportunity to correct the errors on the nomination forms.

Court to rule on APC case today 

Meanwhile an Accra High Court will today deliver its judgment in the case where the All People’s Congress (APC) is challenging the disqualification of its Flagbearer, Hassan Ayariga.

The APC went to the court after the EC disqualified their Flagbearer for failing to meet all the criteria required to contest the presidential elections.

The party as part of their 17 reliefs to the court is seeking an order to compel the EC to include their candidate as part of presidential candidates on the ballot sheet come December 7.

Similar suits by the National Democratic Party (NDP) and People’s National Convention will also be heard today at the High Court.

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By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to the lawyers, the EC on the day of filing their nomination form allowed them to correct some errors on it but failed to give them an opportunity to correct the errors the EC used as basis for invalidating Ayariga’s nomination.

[contextly_sidebar id=”TTJmw0VD0nVbbRq1gKjiKN16jn6ccLtz”]As part of their arguments in court, lead lawyer for the APC also told the judge , Maxwel Logan that the Electoral Commissioner failed to adhere to the seven day period to announce the names of qualified candidates.

He said the original deadline for submission of nominations was extended due to its own decision not to accept the filing fees.

The APC headed to the court after the EC disqualified their flagbearer Hassan Ayariga for failing to meet all the criteria set to contest the presidential elections in December 2016.

The party as part of their 17 reliefs to the court is seeking an order to compel the EC to include their candidate as part of presidential candidates on the ballot sheet come December 7th.

The court is expected to give it judgment on the 4th of November.

Ayariga blames NCCE for his disqualification
Hassan Ayariga a few days ago blamed the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) for his disqualification.

The EC disqualified Ayariga because some persons who subscribed to his candidature endorsed other candidates in the race.

But Ayariga said the NCCE failed in its duties to educate electorates well enough hence the mistakes on the nomination forms.

“Given the doubt that whatever the EC said was true, I am coming from the PNC and there are members of the PNC that have moved from the PNC to ignorantly do those common mistakes. It is the duty of the NCCE to have educated the people on how to subscribe so for us that fault does not lie on political parties but the NCCE, which Charlotte Osei was the former boss.”

“So if those common mistakes are happening then it means that the NCCE didn’t do a good job because if they had done a good job, I don’t think we would have these common errors coming from the voter,” Mr. Ayariga added when he addressed the media after the adjournment of the party’s suit against the EC on Wednesday.

I’ll accept court’s verdict – Ayariga
Mr. Ayariga has also indicated that he would accept the verdict of the court.

“In the rule of law, we believe that the only thing we need is to follow the rules and regulations governing our nation. So we respect the court [and we are] asking the court to do the right thing and whatever decision that comes out we would accept,” he added.

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By: Fred Djabanor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Electoral Commission disqualified Ayariga because some persons who subscribed to his candidature endorsed other candidates in the race.

[contextly_sidebar id=”EK4KEVeZ0eFc7LUz6RkBFg9skUpb1Q75″]But Ayariga said the NCCE failed in its duties to educate electorates well enough hence the mistakes on the nomination forms.

“Given the doubt that whatever the EC said was true, I am coming from the PNC and there are members of the PNC that have moved from the PNC to ignorantly do those common mistakes. It is the duty of the NCCE to have educated the people on how to subscribe so for us that fault does not lie on political parties but the NCCE, which Charlotte Osei was the former boss.”

“So if those common mistakes are happening then it means that the NCCE didn’t do a good job because if they had done a good job, I don’t think we would have these common errors coming from the voter,” Mr. Ayariga added when he addressed the media after the adjournment of the party’s suit against the EC on Wednesday.

Meanwhile an Accra High Court has ruled to abridge the date for the hearing of the APC suit challenging their disqualification by the EC.

The court said the case would be heard on October 31, 2016.

Mr. Ayariga also said said he would accept the verdict of the court.

“In the rule of law, we believe that the only thing we need is to follow the rules and regulations governing our nation. So we respect the court [and we are] asking the court to do the right thing and whatever decision that comes out we would accept,” he added.

PPP, NDP, GCPP sue EC

Some of the parties whose presidential nominees were disqualified from the race – the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), National Democratic Party (NDP) and Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) had sued the EC praying the court to compel the commission to rope them back into the race.

The commission disqualified about 12 political parties from the presidential race.

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According to the Daily Graphic, EOCO in its letter to Hassan Ayariga said it is interested in how he claimed to have expended over $6 million dollars to procure vehicles, among others.

[contextly_sidebar id=”sALl3zzeAwIDsufxFaJHKYHr5gPK3Dzx”]The letter to Mr. Ayariga said, “the office has analysed you statements and comments made to the media and circulated on social media.”

“In one such statement, you are hear to have said you expended over $6 million to procure vehicles, among others. The statement is of great interest to the office,” EOCO added, thus it has requested in writing the sources of the total amounts expended from Mr. Ayariga.

Letter to Dr. Nduom

EOCO is also asking Papa Kwesi Nduom to explain the source of the over GHc1.7 million Cedis he used to pay for his filing fees at the Electoral Commission (EC) and that of his parliamentary candidates.

In Dr. Nduom’s case, EOCO said, “Information available to this office is tho the effect that you financed the recent filing of nominations for both the presidential and parliamentary candidates with the total amount of GHc 1,750,000 from GN Bank.

The letters inviting the two disqualified flagbearers were dated October 21, 2016 and signed by the Executive Director of EOCO, Justice Tsar.

The participation of the two presidential aspirants in the 2016 polls is in doubt as they were disqualified from the December Presidential race after the Electoral Commission (EC) found anomalies in the endorsement of their nomination forms.

The PPP has since filed a lawsuit seeking an order of prohibition to restrain the EC from proceeding with balloting for position of presidential candidates for the 7th December elections.

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He described as unfair, the Electoral Commission’s decision to disqualify him and 12 other aspirants on the grounds of inappropriate filling of their forms.

Ayariga made these remarks when he launched the APC’s election 2016 campaign for the Ashaiman constituency.

At the event Ayariga introduced the party’s parliamentary candidate Musa Yakubu to the people and urged them to vote for him in December 7 polls.

He said he will ensure the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections are nullified if any EC official commits a mistake in the filling of any of its election related documents during the December polls.

“I shall ensure that the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections are nullified in this country should i realize that any of the EC staff has failed to properly fill any pink sheet.”

Ayariga said “why should the EC disqualify some of us on the grounds of negligible mistakes on our forms and yet expect us to pardon it when it’s members and staff commits same in the upcoming elections. No! I Shall ensure due court processes are followed to ensure that the elections are nullified.”

He accused the EC of reducing Ghana to a two party state which should not be the case due to the overgrowing population.

“The EC wants to reduce Ghana to a two party state but we shall resist it because we are a population of 27 million and have come of age so Charlotte Osei cannot come and turn the nation to a two party state.”

This he said shall be strongly opposed adding that “no Ayariga no vote.”

He said though he has been unfortunately disqualified, he has not given up in contesting in this year’s elections adding that he will protest his disqualification at all levels.

“I am here today to encourage you not to stop campaigning despite my unfortunate disqualification because I will resist it until my name is put on the ballot as presidential candidate for my party,” he told supporters.

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The programme which was billed to start at 10:00am dragged on till 5:00pm.

As at 4 pm, the platform was still under construction and the supporters were no where near the venue.

Journalists assigned to cover the programme and police officials who were there to keep peace had overwhelmed the few APC supporters present at the time.

The same venue which was filled to capacity during the campaign launch of both the governing National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party some days back was virtually empty during the constituency campaign launch of Hassan Ayariga’s APC.

Children as usual were at their best well represented at the programme despite the late start.

Hassan Ayariga in the company of his Vice Presidential candidate and the parliamentary nominee for Ashaiman in an okada escort drove to the scene at about half past five.

Not even the presence of Hassan Ayariga could add an inch to the number of supporters gathered  at the place.

When Citi News spoke to some of the sympathisers who were spotted in party T-shirts at the constituency campaign launch, they confessed they were die hard members of the NDC and that they were only around to grace the occasion.

“We are members of the NDC but we are here to just add up to the numbers but not to give them our votes.”

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These offenses included cases of multiple registrations, forgery of signatures, and multiple endorsements of presidential nominees.

[contextly_sidebar id=”wpVoGN1PNRDXDZbLBIUNzqCLKdAjrQQX”]This comes on the back of the disqualification of 13 presidential nominees whose forms were endorsed by such persons. According to the EC, these acts are criminal in nature, hence their decision to ask the Attorney General to prosecute such persons.

The Deputy Director of Communications at the Commission, Yussif Ayuba, revealed to Citi News that the “Electoral Commission has compiled such persons and duly forwarded to the police for prosecution and now it is in the domain of the police.”

He noted that “there are various degrees of offenses that have been referred. Some are forgery, some are impersonation,” though he could not say when the investigations would commence.

When the EC was explaining reasons for the disqualification of the various aspirants, it noted that the the culprits fell foul of the following sections of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29): Section 211: Perjury, Section 248: making false declaration etc. for office or voting, Section 251: Deceiving a public officer and Section 256: Corruption, intimidation and impersonation in respect of election.

Evidence of some of the offenses were seen in the forms of the Progressive People’s Party’s (PPP) aspirant, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, the All People’s Congress’ Hassan Ayariga, and the Independent People’s Party’s (IFP) Kofi Akpaloo, among others.

In the case of Dr. Nduom, the EC revealed that one of the subscribers who endorsed his nomination form was found to be legitimately on the register of the Volta Region, yet he went ahead to sign the forms in the Central Region as well with different signatures. The name of the subscriber was given as Richard Aseda.

The IPP’s Kofi Akpaloo, Hassan Ayariga of the APC, Dr. Nana Agyenim Boateng of the United Front Party, Dr. Henry Herbert Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and Thomas Nuako Ward-Brew of the Democratic People’s Party, similarly had multiple subscribers having different signatures on the nomination forms, again raising questions as to the legitimacy of the signatures.

In the case of the Reformed Democrat’s Party (RDP) Kwabena Adjei, two subscribers for his forms were not registered voters as they are on the exclusion list for multiple registrations, according to the EC.

The two persons are listed as Stephen Owusu and Fusheini Mariama/ Abdulai Mariama; both possessing two voter ID cards each.

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The parties have some conviction that they can overturn their disqualification either at the EC office or at the law court.

Speaking to Citi News, the General Secretary of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP),Murtala Mohammed, said his party is not distracted by the disqualification.

[contextly_sidebar id=”GURw8GJ5VbV5gdsdcxymk7lrltdVquD6″]He said the party has asked its parliamentary nominees to continue campaigning despite the disqualification.

“We have called all our parliamentary candidates to Accra to tell them to continue the good works they are doing. If there are any machinations or reasons why they are disqualifying us, it is because of their good works so they should go ahead and work and win the parliamentary seat for us. We psyched them up to go back and start work today. Even though we are distracted a little, I think we are fine and we are going to go ahead with our campaign.”

We’re focused – APC 

The General Secretary of All Peoples Congress (APC), Razak Opoku, also indicated that, the party is still focused on their campaign plans.

“We are very hopeful that, our nominees will get back on the ballot. If we also file for our parliamentary nominees, we cannot sit down and say that we are waiting for the outcome of the court’s decision. We are still campaigning seriously and we are not disturbed much by the EC’s decision. We are campaigning vigorously.”

On Monday, the EC disqualified 13 presidential aspirants after they failed to meet some requirements in filling their nomination forms.

Some of the affected parties have since declared their intentions of suing the EC over its decision.

Meanwhile the EC has also disqualified some 24 parliamentary aspirants in the Ashanti Region.

This time, their disqualification was not due to a failure to meet the necessary requirements, but their inability to pay the Ghc10,000 filing fees.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
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