The Electoral Commission (EC) has disqualified 13 Presidential aspirants from contesting the 2016 elections.
EC Chairperson, Charlotte Osei cited several reasons for disqualifying the candidates but primarily noted that they couldn't meet the necessary requirements.
Key requisites for the Presidential candidates to be qualified is for them to have their nomination forms signed by two registered voters in every district (432 valid endorsements required) and also one voter is not permitted to endorse more than one Presidential candidate.
In some instances, the disqualified candidates failed to have all signatories on the forms.
One candidate was noted to have had a voter endorse him and another candidate which is against the electoral laws and according to the EC Boss, there will be criminal charges against the candidate.
Addressing the issue on Peace FM's Kokrokoo, Mr Boakye Agyarko, Policy Advisor to the flag bearer of the main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Akufo-Addo said the EC is partly to blame for the disqualification of the candidates.
According to him, the current EC appears disorganized and not able to get its activities together.
Mr Boakye Agyarko opined that the EC could have avoided this situation if it had given ample time to the candidates to file their forms.
He was of the view that the candidates could have had about a year prior to the elections to mobilize their signatories and cross-check their forms to ensure they have it intact to meet the requirements.
The 2012 NPP Campaign Manager further advised the EC to create a database of the signatories to the various Presidential aspirants in order to avoid double signing of documents or double endorsements.
He noted that the database will help the candidates to verify if a signatory on their form has already endorsed a different candidate before they finally file their forms.
"...how can these candidates know if a signatory on their form had already endorsed a different candidate?" he quizzed.
To him, the cases of double endorsements or signatories might have been an oversight on the part of the candidates and so, they can't be entirely blamed for failing to notice that their signatories had already endorsed different candidates.
Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana
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I am not sure why the disqualified parties are fighting the double endorsement issues. If they had their party members in all the regions this will not have happened. NDC/NPP will not have this issue because the constituency executives and other party staff to sign and not go pay money to guy sitting in his corner to endorse them. If you came to me I would signed 10 times after all it is cash!!!
Kay and EC BOSS, I disagree with you. The question posed here is how would I now if someone has endorsed somebody else. I don't have any way of knowing unless I can check with some database or the EC gives me more time to replace the person who has signed my form. Democracy is not about making it difficult for people to participate, it is rather the opposite. The more people participate the better. People must not punished for trying to participate. People become disillusioned when we make it more difficult for them to participate in any process. The problem with Ghana is, this permeates all spheres of our society. We pt impediments in anything that encourages people. Let me give an example a friend wanted to start a University in Ghana, and there is a particular way the Accreditation Board wants the paperwork done so if your style of doing the paperwork is not exactly the same as they want, say numbering courses, your program will not be approved even though they think you paperwork is great. To me this stifles innovation. This is the reason students 'chew and pour' because they lose point anytime they try solve the problem differently. Like I said sometime back it is the duty of the EC to make it easier for political parties to participate in the process not harder. Which means all the paperwork required must be given to candidates including assets declaration forms. After submission the EC should let the parties know if there are problems with their submission and give them at least 2 - 4 weeks to rectify those problems. If after this period the candidate has not resolved the problem the they can be disqualified. From what I read it looks like the paperwork is enormous and therefore the possibility of little errors, such errors should not bar potentially good candidates from the election. I would not be surprised that if you carefully go through all the paperwork for NDC and NPP, you will find a typo somewhere. The elections should be about more participation and not less. Over 80% of the candidates were disqualified, that means there is a problem. If you teach a class of 10 students and 8 of your students fail your class exam, the teacher must be bad and not just the student.
this was a simply litmus test for the candidates to prove that indeed they have genuine team of people they will work with and note fake or half baked people so Mr policy advisor you are wrong here. it can not be the EC Boss to organize such people on a data base from up to one year before you can verify their signatory so let her be!!!
HOW CAN A LEGISLATOR TALK AS IF HE IS UNEDUCATED. IS THE BURDEN NOT ON THE PERSON WHO WANTS SOMEONE TO ENDORSE HIS FORM TO FIND OUT FROM WHOEVER HE CONTACTS FOR ENDORSEMENT WHETHER HE HAS ALREADY SIGNED FOR SOMEBODY OR IT IS THE EC THAT HAS TO PROVIDE THAT INFORMATION TO THEM. WHY ARE OUR POLITICAL PARTIES SO LAZY TO DO DUE DELIGENCE. BOAKYE AGYARKO SHOULD COME AGAIN