My disqualification 'shocking' – Henry Lartey

The flag bearer of the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), Dr Henry Herbert Lartey, has expressed shock at the Electoral Commission’s decision to disqualify him from contesting in this year’s presidential election.

“I was totally surprised because we’ve done our thing right to the hilt. Even when we delivered our paper, the chairperson said she couldn’t find some of the [documents] and she quickly turned round and said, ‘I’ve found it’ and quickly put them back into the envelope. Every document that we have is a small document and on the top of the document is our personal details and they are saying they couldn’t find our personal detail. That is why they disqualified us? I cannot see how they could have lost it. Four personal details on four documents, how could they possibly have lost it? So, it’s time for them to look for it because we gave it to them. It’s in their office, they cannot disqualify us from losing our paper,” Dr Lartey told Class News’ Emefa Apawu shortly after the announcement on Monday October 10.

Dr Lartey noted that he double-checked his documents before submitting them to the EC and, therefore, asked the election management body to go back and look for his documents or he will involve the police for theft.

“…We have to talk like reasonable people [to the EC] that, ‘Please, look into your office [for the document]’ and when they look, they will find it and then everything will end. If they can’t find it, it means somebody has taken it and we will bring the police into it...” he stated.

Dr Lartey was disqualified on the following reasons:

“The Commission is unable to accept Dr Lartey’s nomination because the number of subscribers to his forms did not meet the requirements of Regulation 7 (2) (b) of CI 94. The details are as follows:

Pages 18-22 do not contain the signatures of subscribers as required by law

Pages 14 – 17: Subscriptions are undated

The personal records of the vice-presidential candidate have not been provided.

One subscriber – Amadu Babia Latifah – with voter ID number 3357006984 & Polling station K100401 (page 110) also supported the nomination of another candidate. This disqualifies both candidates endorsed by the said voter.

Further, the said subscriber has different signatures on both candidates’ nominations raising questions as to the legitimacy of both signatures.

We will refer the matter of the possible forgeries of these signatures to the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney General for investigation and prosecution in line with the following sections of the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29):

Section 211: Perjury

Section 248: Making false declaration etc. for office or voting;

Section 251: Deceiving a public officer

Section 256: Corruption, Intimidation and personation in respect of election”.

The EC disqualified 11 other presidential nominees on Monday October 10 and put one on hold, pending the determination of a court challenge.

Apart from Dr Lartey, the others disqualified include Dr Edward Mahama of the People's National Convention (PNC); 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 Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive People's Party (PPP).

The others are: Mr Richard Nixon Tetteh (United Development Systems Party); Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings of the National Democratic Party (NDP); 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). Mr Akwasi Addae Odike of the United Progressive Party's nomination is on hold pending a court case.

Mrs Osei cited filing anomalies including fraudulent signatures, absence of a required number of signatures, improper filling of nomination forms, among others, as the reasons for their disqualification. In the case of Mr Odike, Mrs Osei said Mr Odike had been given up to Friday, 14 October, to deal with the court case or count himself out of the race completely.

Mrs Osei said some of the fraudulent information provided by the nominees would be followed up by the police for possible arrest and prosecution.

Those whose nominations have been accepted include President John Mahama of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Nana Akufo-Addo of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Mr Ivor Greenstreet of the Convention People's Party (CPP), and Jacob Osei Yeboah – an independent aspirant.