We’ve been fair to parties - EC

The Electoral Commission cannot be accused of having been unfair to any of the disqualified flag bearers in this year’s presidential poll, Director of Communications of the election management body, Mr Eric Kofi Dzakpasu has said.

He told Naa Dedei Tettey on 12Live’s Campaign Trail that the EC applied the rules as they ought to be used in disqualifying the 13 nominees.

The body has received a litany of flak as having been unfair to the disqualified nominees by not informing them of the mistakes they committed on their nomination forms and giving them the chance to effect corrections before going ahead to disqualify them.

As a result of the disqualification, a number of parties have dragged the EC to court.

The presidential nominee of the Independent People’s Party (IPP), Kofi Akpaloo, on Tuesday became the fifth flag bearer to sue the EC over his disqualification from this year’s presidential race.

“We are asking the court to put me back on the list of presidential nominees because she [Mrs Charlotte Osei, Chair of the Electoral Commission] didn’t give me the opportunity to explain to her why these three [subscribers] genuinely signed for me. … To me she erred, it wasn’t right, the people genuinely signed for me,” Mr Akpaloo said on Tuesday in defence of his suit which will be heard by the Accra High Court on Friday 4 November.

Apart from Mr Akpaloo, former First Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings of the National Democratic Party, Hassan Ayariga of the App people’s Party and Dr Edward Mahama of the People’s National Convention have also sued the EC in that regard. Their cases will also be heard on Friday.

Earlier, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom and the Progressive People’s Party won a similar legal battle against the EC. The court ordered the EC to accord Dr Nduom the chance to correct all mistakes he committed on his nomination forms for which reason he was disqualified. The EC has filed for an appeal against the ruling at the Supreme Court.