The Chairperson of the Electoral Commission Charlotte Osei has given the assurance that the numerous law suits against the commission will not affect the December 7, date set for the polls.
According to her, the EC is mindful of the time left for the elections but also has a responsibility to defend the country’s electoral laws.
Speaking to the BBC on the decision to disqualify 12 presidential candidates over nomination form errors, Mrs Osei dismissed suggestions that the matter should have been resolved at the Inter-party advisory Committee (IPAC) level.
“...How is IPAC going to deal with that? IPAC cannot deal with matters involving illegalities that is a matter for the court. We didn’t go to court remember; the law says the commission shall take a decision. The chairperson of the commission is the returning officer for presidential elections, so my job is to receive and examine the forms and if there is any legal basis where the forms cannot be accepted, you report to the commission and the entire commission takes a decision; it is not a decision to be taken by IPAC, if you take it to IPAC anybody can challenge you, the commission has to act in accordance with the law,” she told her interviewer Akwasi Sarpong.
She continued: “If the law says someone has to provide ABC to be properly qualified, it is not a decision to be taken by IPAC, that will be the commission abdicating its legal responsibilities to the people of Ghana to IPAC”.
On the December 7, date, she said “We will not allow law suits to subvert the process and so we are going to get a definitive ruling from the Supreme Court likely this week; at the latest, early next week, but in the meantime, we have started the process of printing the parliamentary ballot papers to make up some of the time and so we are in a good place to meet the December 7 date”.
