Sounds like a familiar verse in the Book of Exodos: “And they said unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, has thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore has thou dealt thus with us to carry us forth out of Egypt?” Exod. 14:11 (KJV).
Palpable fear had gripped biblical Israelites en-route to the Promised Land but they realised their enemies (the Egyptians) were closing in on them, hence the above statement.
On Thursday the Electoral Commission (EC) revealed its plans to print the 2016 election ballot papers abroad at an Accra High court presided over by Justice Eric Kyei Baffour. The revelation came up when the court sat to hear the motion for an abridgment of time by the EC following a suit filed against it by Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom presidential nominee of the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), who wa s disqualified for failing to meet the electoral requirements.
The news didn’t go down well with some of the people at the courtroom, particularly the policy director for the PPP Mr. Kofi Asamoah Siaw. He couldn’t mask his anger and frustration about the posture of the electoral body. He quickly criticised the EC, wondering if the commission had the nation at heart.
“Why would the EC want to move out of the country to print ballot papers for an election here in Ghana, when there are companies that could do the job? This is against our policy to create jobs for Ghanaians.”
Are foreigners the only alternative to what we need? What we are worried about as a party is the credibility of the process and the unfortunate decision by the EC to print the papers abroad. When will the printed ballots arrive?’ he questioned.
And I couldn’t agree with Mr. Siaw more on that. It seems as a nation we’re allergic to ‘made-in Ghana’ goods. It seems we’re averse to anything locally-made. And anything grown or manufactured in Ghana is deemed inferior. Meanwhile, some or most of the goods we import from People’s Republic of China for example are just ‘painte-ma-mento.’
Indeed, it seems domestication is out of the eastern corridor and the craze for western or oriental merchandise has seemingly become unstoppable and adaptable to us as a people. Isn’t that true tell me? We grow rice here, yet our markets, stalls, stores and malls are flooded with China rice.
How do you expect the small and medium enterprises to grow the (SME’s)?
What’s wrong with us as a people?
In apropos, King Solomon was right. Nothing under the sun is new. They’ve all happened before. They just metamorphose either in shape or size, time and location, this writer believes.
So now we all know that it wasn’t just an empty threat by the embattled PPP nominee, if one thought so. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom has raised the threat level to a court suit. And it seems he’s fighting tooth and nail to get his status legitimised. That’s a battle he’s fighting now.
The suit has Dr. Nduom as the exparte applicant with Madam Charlotte Osei the EC chairperson as the first Respondent and EC as the 2nd Respondent .The EC filed for an abridgment of case for interlocutory injunction filed by PPP restraining it from proceeding with balloting for position presidential candidates for the Dec 7th elections.
The plaintiff is also seeking a further order directed against the 1st Respondent in her capacity as Returning Officer for Presidential elections to grant the applicant the opportunity to amend and alter the one anomaly found in his nomination papers as well as amended or altered to enable him contest as a presidential candidate for the December 7, 2016 election.
The court was of the view that time is of essence and had further instructed lawyers for EC and PPP to file their statement of case by Monday October 24. They are also expected to appear before the court so that a date can be given for the ruling.
Mr. Siaw said they expected the process to be fair but in their case that didn’t happen, hence their decision to resort to court. According to him their lawyer s are capable enough to prosecute their case. And was hopeful everything would hold its sway.
The faster the case moves the better: “I want the case to travel as fast as possible because we don’t want to jeopardise the electoral process,” he hinted.
Does anybody remember this?
In 2012, Dr. Nduom then presidential nominee for the PPP issued this fiat: “Do not think that you’re the only parties that can recruit or have macho men. We can also raise an army of lions.” He was referring to the two major political parties who’d or still have the likes of ‘Azoka Boys.’
I didn’t see the lions on our streets though. But on a more serious note I think he meant, anything NDC/NPP can do his party—PPP can do it, perhaps worse. Truth be told who stand an army of roaring lions?
Meanwhile the court has stated emphatically that it would at all times be guided by the timeline as far as election 2016 was concerned. It has therefore ordered the parties to file their by Monday, adding the they should return to the following day to make viva voca (oral submission) after which a date will be set for the judgement of the court
What led to the disqualification?
On Monday October 10, the EC knocked down 12 presidential nominees bidding to serve at the Flagstaff House—the seat of government in the 2016 December 7 poll.
The move happened to be the first major storm that had ever hit Ghana’s political landscape –jolting political ambitions of the 12 candidates. Among them former first Lady Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, NDP, Dr. Edward Mahama, PNC, and Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, PPP have all been disqualified by the Electoral Commission(EC) to contest in the forthcoming presidential election
But this is what led to the disqualification— fraudulent signatures, absence of required number of signatures and improper filing of nomination forms.
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