Court orders PPP, EC to file statement of case

The High court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei-Baffour has warned lawyers of both the Electoral Commission and Progressive People's Party to file their statements of case simultaneously in the suit seeking judicial review of the disqualification of the PPP's presidential candidate from the December polls.

The court says it will at all times be guided by the timeline as far as election 2016 is concerned. As a result, the court has ordered that the filing be done by Monday October 24, and the parties will return to court the following day to make viva voca (oral submission) after which a date will be set for the judgement of the court.

The founder and leader of the Progressive People’s Party, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom has stated that he would not give up easily following his disqualification from the presidential race in the upcoming December polls.

The party thus sued the EC at the High Court seeking an order of prohibition to restrain the EC from proceeding with balloting for position of presidential candidates for the December 7, elections.

It also sought for”…a further order directed against the 1st Respondent in her capacity as Returning Officer for Presidential elections to grant the Applicant 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.”

“And for such order or further as to this Honourable Court may deem fit,” the PPP’s suit added.

Dr Nduom and 11 others were disqualified from the contest by the EC.

Some of the reasons outlined by the EC that led to the disqualification of the aspirants are filing anomalies including fraudulent signatures, absence of a required number of signatures and improper filling of nomination forms.