In 2012 Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) emerged as the third best candidate in the general elections.
In 2016 however, neither his photo, name nor the party’s logo may be on the presidential ballot paper because one of his subscribers, Richard Aseda from the Volta region has ‘killed’ his ambition.
According to the Electoral Commission (EC), it has disqualified Dr Nduom from the 2016 presidential elections because he was unable to raise the minimum required number of subscribers to support his nomination.
The EC explained that many of his subscribers did not know regulations 7(2) (b) of C. I. 74.
The details are that one subscriber Mr Richard Aseda (‘Asida’ on the Voters’ Register) with voter ID number 7812003957 endorsed Dr Nduom’s forms in two different districts (pages 21 and 39) in the Central region and with the same ID number in the Volta region.
At a press conference on Monday, Mrs Charlotte Osei, Chairperson of the EC explained that the subscriber was found to be legitimately on the register in the Volta region and therefore disqualifies him from being able to subscribe in the Central region as well.
This therefore reduced the minimum required subscribers for Dr Nduom as required by law.
The same subscriber Mr Richard Aseda, according to the EC also endorsed the form with different signatures and therefore raised questions of legitimacy of the signatures.
The EC chair, Mrs Charlotte Osei explained that the matter would be referred to the Ghana Police Service and Attorney General on grounds of possible forgery of signatures for investigations and prosecution in line with the Criminal Offences Act.
She said the matter would be considered under the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29): on grounds of Section 211: Perjury, Section 248: making false declaration etc. for office or voting; Section 251: Deceiving a public officer and Section 256: Corruption, Intimidation and impersonation in respect of election.
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