EC Chair should have resigned over complex nomination process - Amidu
Former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Martin Amidu, says the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mrs Charlotte Osei should have quit her post for failing to educate presidential aspirants about the complex nomination process which resulted in the disqualification of 13 of them.
Advertisement
According to Mr Amidu, Mrs Osei should have resigned instead of rushing to disqualify 13 out of the 17 aspirants which was contrary to the law.
"It is amazing that the Commissioner failed or refused to realize that her impunity in not complying with the Constitution and the law in disqualifying the aspiring candidates disclosed more about her failure as the head of the Electoral Commission than the ignorance or lack of attention on the part of the aspirants in filling the complex nomination forms designed by her office for the Presidential Elections," Mr Amidu said in an article.
"It is demonstrable failure and an indictment on the competence of the Commissioner that only 4 of her class of 17 political parties and independent aspiring presidential candidates were able to understand and complete the nomination forms without error and to submit them at her own appointed time of 29th and 30th September 2016.
"Instead of rushing to disqualify them contrary to the due process of law (particularly the right to alter or amend as provided by law and natural justice) and gloating on her competence in the unlawful application of C.I. 94 she should have resigned for failing in her functions to educate the aspirants for the complex nomination electoral process and its purpose".
He added that the EC Chair acted arrogantly in proceeding to refer the aspiring candidates to the police for investigation for the commission of various offences alleged by her in her statement of reasons for disqualifying them.