Nduom sails through in court over disqualification
Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) has sailed through in court following a ruling by the Accra High Court that the Electoral Commission's refusal to afford him the opportunity to correct his nomination forms was a breach of the rules of natural justice, Graphic Online's Mabel Aku Baneseh reports.
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The court said the EC did not give Dr Nduom the fair opportunity to amend mistakes on his nomination forms.
This means, Dr Nduom who is flag bearer of the PPP would have to go back to the EC to make the necessary correction on his nomination forms to be considered as a candidate for the December 7 presidential race.
Dr Nduom was part of 13 presidential aspirants who were disqualified from contesting this year's elections for failing to meet the requirements.
For Dr Nduom, the EC explained that: “the number of subscribers to his forms did not meet the requirements of Regulation 7 (2) (b) of CI 94."
Following that he took the matter to court and sought an order directed against the Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Charlotte Osei in her capacity as Returning Officer for Presidential elections to grant him the opportunity to amend and alter the one anomaly found in his nomination papers as well as accept his nomination papers as amended or altered to enable him contest as a Presidential Candidate for the 7th December 2016 elections.
Read also: How Aseda 'killed' Nduom's 2016 presidential ambition
In disqualifying Dr Nduom, the EC explained that he was unable to raise the minimum required number of subscribers to support his nomination.
The details were that one subscriber Mr Richard Aseda (‘Asida’ on the Voters’ Register) with voter ID number 7812003957 endorsed Dr Nduom’s forms in two different districts (pages 21 and 39) in the Central region and with the same ID number in the Volta region.
Mrs Charlotte Osei, Chairperson of the EC explained that the subscriber was found to be legitimately on the register in the Volta region and therefore disqualifies him from being able to subscribe in the Central region as well.
This, she said therefore reduced the minimum required subscribers for Dr Nduom as required by law.
The same subscriber Mr Richard Aseda, according to the EC also endorsed the form with different signatures and therefore raised questions of legitimacy of the signatures.
Below are photos of Dr Nduom and wife, Yvonne as well as supporters of PPP who were in court on Friday
