Lawyers for the All People’s Congress (APC) have accused the Electoral Commission [EC] of deliberately disqualifying the party’s flagbearer, Hassan Ayariga.
According to the lawyers, the EC on the day of filing their nomination form allowed them to correct some errors on it but failed to give them an opportunity to correct the errors the EC used as basis for invalidating Ayariga’s nomination.
As part of their arguments in court, lead lawyer for the APC also told the judge that the Electoral Commissioner failed to adhere to the seven day period to announce the names of qualified candidates.
He said the original deadline for submission of nominations was extended due to its own decision not to accept the filing fees.
The APC headed to the court after the EC disqualified their flagbearer Hassan Ayariga for failing to meet all the criteria set to contest the presidential elections in December 2016.
The party as part of their 17 reliefs to the court is seeking an order to compel the EC to include their candidate as part of presidential candidates on the ballot sheet come December 7th.
The court is expected to give it judgment on the 4th of November.
Ayariga blames NCCE for his disqualification
Hassan Ayariga a few days ago blamed the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) for his disqualification.
The EC disqualified Ayariga because some persons who subscribed to his candidature endorsed other candidates in the race.
But Ayariga said the NCCE failed in its duties to educate electorates well enough hence the mistakes on the nomination forms.
“Given the doubt that whatever the EC said was true, I am coming from the PNC and there are members of the PNC that have moved from the PNC to ignorantly do those common mistakes. It is the duty of the NCCE to have educated the people on how to subscribe so for us that fault does not lie on political parties but the NCCE, which Charlotte Osei was the former boss.”
“So if those common mistakes are happening then it means that the NCCE didn’t do a good job because if they had done a good job, I don’t think we would have these common errors coming from the voter,” Mr. Ayariga added when he addressed the media after the adjournment of the party’s suit against the EC on Wednesday.
I’ll accept court’s verdict – Ayariga
Mr. Ayariga has also indicated that he would accept the verdict of the court.
“In the rule of law, we believe that the only thing we need is to follow the rules and regulations governing our nation. So we respect the court [and we are] asking the court to do the right thing and whatever decision that comes out we would accept,” he added.
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