Charlotte Osei, EC Chairperson
A Private Legal Practitioner Kwame Adofo has described the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC) Mrs Charlotte Osei as belligerent over her posture in the case involving the presidential nominee of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom.
According to him, the EC Chair’s posture indicates that she is bent on preventing Dr Nduom and the other disqualified candidates from appearing on the ballot paper for the December 7 polls.
The EC on Monday headed to the Supreme Court to quash an Accra High court’s ruling in favour of Dr Nduom, directing the former to allow Dr Nduom rectify the anomalies on his nomination forms.
Speaking on Abusua FM’s Abusua Nkommo hosted by Kwame Adinkrah, Lawyer Adofo wondered why the EC chair decided to go to the Supreme Court to seek ‘certiorari’ when she is supposed to give up on the case and let sleeping dogs lie.
He said the lawsuits will have dire consequences on the December 7 polls if she battles every court ruling.
Lawyer Adofo said the date of the elections is likely to change if the EC wins the case at the Supreme Court because lawyers of Dr Nduom will also pursue the case.
He is of the view that a powerful hand in the camp of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is directing the affairs of the EC else she would not be this antagonistic towards the disqualified candidates.
The legal practitioner maintains that Madam Charlotte lacks administrative law hence her hostile posture to disqualify the candidates without giving them the opportunity to be heard.
He questioned why the EC Chair refused to grant the affected candidates hearing in the interest of natural justice before taking a decision to disqualify them indicating that it was impossible for the candidates to detect that the subscribers engaged in double nomination forms signing.
‘An administrative decision makers include DVLA boss, EC boss, passport office director, all these bodies are supposed to be independent. You need to follow certain procedures when taking decision. Your decision should be dismissed if you go against the procedure, even if the decision is a good one. I personally think Charlotte Osei is just being belligerent. She should let it go, for me I think there is a powerful hand directing affairs of the EC, because it doesn’t make sense, she goofed from the get go.
Every lawyer with sound mind knows she goofed so it was unnecessary to pursue it. Her decision doesn’t make sense at all. Am surprised she is a lawyer, maybe she didn’t study administrative law, she is a commercial lawyer, she knows nothing about administrative law, else she wouldn’t be acting this way, the country’s interest is been sacrificed for just a few,’ he explained.
