Presidential aspirants were too many - Palmer-Buckle

The number of people who wanted to run for president in this year’s elections was unprecedented in Ghana’s political history, Most Reverend Charles Gabriel Palmer-Buckle, Metropolitan Archbishop of Accra has said

Speaking to Chief Jerry Forson on Accra100.5FM’s breakfast show Ghana Yensom on Wednesday, 19 October, about what he made of the Electoral Commission’s disqualification of 13 of the 17 presidential nominees from the race, Archbishop Palmer-Buckle said: “If anyone says we’ve never had the EC disqualify presidential aspirants on such a large scale before, we must also put on record that we’ve never had that many presidential aspirants before.”

The EC dropped the 13 aspirants over clerical and administrative errors as well as for perjury and forgery.

They include Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP), the All People's Congress’ (APC), Hassan Ayariga; Dr Agyenim Boateng of the United Front Party (UFP); Kofi Akpaloo of the Independent People's Party (IPP); Kwabena Adjei of the Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD) and Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention (PNC).

The others include: Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP); Mr Richard Nixon Tetteh (United Development Systems Party); Thomas Ward-Brew of the Democratic People’s Party (DPP); Alfred Kwame Asiedu Walker, an independent candidate, and Akua Donkor of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP).

Out of the 13, Dr Nduom, Mrs Rawlings and Dr Henry Lartey of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) have sued the EC in court over their disqualification. The PNC has also given the EC a 48-hour ultimatum to reinstate Dr Mahama or face them in court.

Archbishop Palmer-Buckle told Jerry Forson that the law must prevail as far as the struggle between the EC and the disqualified nominees is concerned.

“The Electoral Commission (EC) works with laws. They disqualified the 13 presidential nominees for various infractions based on the law and the affected nominees have also resorted to the courts for redress, so, let’s wait and see what the courts say about it. Let’s allow the law to work. Let’s respect the law,” he added.