Election 2016: Accept me or not, I’ll campaign - Nduom

The presidential candidate of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, has stated he will continue to campaign ahead of the December polls, despite being disqualified by the Electoral Commission (EC).

“My party nominated me to be its presidential candidate — whether the EC accepts me or not, whether I’m acknowledged as an official candidate or not — I’m leading our party in this campaign,” said Nduom in an interview with Accra-based Class FM on Friday.

“And so, I’m going to go wherever it is that I need to go to campaign with our parliamentary candidates, campaign with our supporters so that they vote for our people,” he added.

The EC on Monday at a press conference addressed by its chair, Charlotte Osei, announced the disqualification of 12 presidential aspirants including the presidential nominee of the PPP.

“The commission was unable to accept the nominations of Nduom, because the number of subscribers in his forms did not make the requirements of regulation 7(2) of CI 94,” the chair of the commission said adding that “one subscriber, Mr. Richard Aseda, with voter ID number 7812003957 endorsed Dr. Nduom’s forms in the Central region and again endorsed the same forms with the same ID number in the Volta region.”

Reacting to the disqualification, Dr. Nduom said the issues with his nomination forms are mere administrative and clerical errors that could be fixed in a five-minute session with the chair of the commission.

The commission Wednesday granted Nduom the five minutes he asked for, but said that its position is still unchanged.

The business magnate therefore indicated that he was heading to the law court to get himself reinstated by the electoral commission.

Even though, he is yet to head to the courts for redress, he said Friday that “if it turns out, even in the end… let’s suppose that the case even goes all the way to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court says — you cannot be a presidential candidate, I still will campaign on behalf our parliamentary candidates to make the PPP go to Parliament.”

The presidential nominee of the PPP in an earlier interview Thursday accused the commission of violating his constitutional rights stating that it [the commission] cannot stop his presidential ambition.

His disqualification, he stated was illegal as the commission failed to follow due process whilst scrutinizing his nomination forms.

“I believe that my rights are being trampled upon and I want to show the people that no one can do it to Papa Kwesi Nduom or the PPP and get away with it,” he said Thursday.