The flagbearer of the All People’s Party (APC), Hassan Ayariga has welcomed a High Court order to the Electoral Commission to allow him correct errors on his nomination forms descriding the judgment as proof that the nation’s democracy is working.
Mr. Ayariga was disqualified from the 2016 presidential contest because some of his subscribers also endorsed other candidates in the race but an Accra High Court on Friday directed the EC to give him the chance to amend his forms.
Speaking to the media after the judgment, Mr. Ayariga was grateful for the victory.
“Ghanaians today have witnessed a very successful even today which demonstrates to the whole world that our laws are working. No matter who you are when you have any issue you can always go to court for redress. I am very proud that democracy is really working in this country. I am very proud that rule of law in Ghana is working.”
Mr. Ayariga said he and his team really prayed to God for a favourable judgment.
“We thank the almighty God. Today we must all believe in God. We must all believe in God. We have prayed and prayed that the court will give us justice.”
“When asked when he would visit the EC to have his form amended, Mr. Ayariga said “we have given the EC the correction but they rejected it. We’ve done the correction immediately they told us that we were disqualified, we gave them two subscribers to substitute the two so we don’t have to go to the Electoral Commission.”
Background
Hassan Ayariga was disqualified from the contest because some of the subscribers to his nomination also endorsed other candidates in the contest. Lawyers for the APC had earlier in court accused the EC of deliberately disqualifying Hassan Ayariga.
The lawyers argued that 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.
Hassan Ayariga blames NCCE for his disqualification
Hassan Ayariga had earlier blamed the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) for his disqualification from the 2016 presidential.
Ayariga said the NCCE failed in its duties to educate electorates well enough hence the mistakes on the nomination form.
“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.”
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