A Deputy National Organizer for the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), Mardi Jibril has slammed critics of the first female commissioner, Mrs. Charlotte Osei over the disqualification of some 13 presidential candidates who failed to meet the requirements.
According to Mardi Jibril, the EC boss is not working with her own laws or personal property but an approved Constitutional Instrument (C. I.) 94.
The commissioner he explained has done no wrong or erred by implementing the law which was approved by Parliament in September.
The concern of Ghanaians and stakeholders should be on how we can amend the CI 94 instead of attacking the commissioner for no reason, he suggested.
He expressed strong optimism that the CI 94 will be amended in our next election due to the defects in it.
The Electoral Commission of Ghana announced on 10th October 2016 that it had disqualified 13 out of 17 candidates aspiring to contest to be elected to the high office of President from taking part in the 2016 Presidential Elections.
Some the parties challenged their disqualification and won in court. One of such party is the PPP led Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom whose victory at the Accra High Court was challenged at the Supreme Court by the EC.
The ruling from the apex court paved way for all other candidates make corrections on their forms.
The disqualification has been described as unlawful by some lawyers including a former attorney general Martin Amidu, who believes the EC boss wants to rig the polls for the NDC.
But Mardi Jibril has described such comments as unnecessary and baseless. The EC he stressed, acted by law and to chide an institution for exercising its constitutional mandate is worrying.
He also took a swipe at some legislators who are also chiding the EC boss after they failed to do due diligence before passing the CI 94 into law.
Charlotte Osei in his view needs to be applauded for challenging Dr. Nduom’s case at the Supreme Court which brought finality to the various legal battles.
According to him, it will be unfortunate for anyone to say that the EC boss was creating tension by acting lawfully.
He said, ‘we [NDC] are proud of the system. The system is working. Charlotte Osei did not quote from her own laws but she is working with the CI 94 which was prepared, presented before parliament, matured and approved. So if the parliamentarians now come to criticize Charlotte Osei for using the same laws, what laws did the then approve for her.”
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