Ayariga battles EC in court
The legal ‘warfare’ initiated by Hassan Ayariga, the presidential aspirant of the All People’s Congress (APC), to have his disqualification by the Electoral Commission (EC) annulled will play out in court on October 31, 2016.
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The Accra High Court, presided over by Ms Barbara Teteh-Charway, fixed the date yesterday after it abridged the time for the hearing of the case to fast track its adjudication.
Counsel for the EC, Mr Thaddeus Sory, and counsel for Mr Ayariga, Mr Maxwell Komla Logan, both agreed with the court’s decision to abridge the time of the hearing to ensure its speedy resolution.
In line with its decision to fast track the case, the court has directed the two parties to file their statements of case simultaneously by tomorrow.
It will also fix the date for the judgement of the case during the hearing on October 31, 2016.
What Ayariga wants
Mr Ayariga dragged the EC to court after he was disqualified from contesting the upcoming election.
He claims the electoral body’s decision to disqualify him is not in “accordance with the law and procedure enshrined in C.I 94”
He is seeking a declaration from the court that the EC’s decision to disqualify him without inviting him to make amends to his nomination “is premature in law, arbitrary, unreasonable, unlawful and a wrongful exercise of its administrative powers’’.
Also, he wants the court to declare that the EC has no power to disqualify him and even if it had the power, “its failure to adhere to due process was so unjust and perverted as to deprive the commission of its powers.’’
The APC founder, therefore, wants an order from the court that will compel the EC to accept his “nomination and nomination forms and to include his name on the ballot paper for the 2016 presidential election.’’
Mr Ayariga appeared in court flanked by his running mate, Mr Emmanuel Carl Bartels, and other party executive.
In an interview with the media, he said the APC was in court to make sure that the EC followed what he described as due process.
“All that we are asking the court is to interpret the law that the EC used to disqualify us. We believe that the EC is using one aspect of the law to govern the elections to satisfy itself without regard to all aspects of the law,’’ he said.
Barrage of suits
With 41 days to the polls, the EC is facing litigations on different fronts following its decision to disqualify 13 persons from contesting as presidential candidates.
Apart from Mr Ayariga, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) and Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP) have also sued the electoral body.
The cases are,however, being fast tracked by the courts to ensure that this year’s election is not unduly disrupted.
