The Electoral Commission (EC) has explained that it disqualified Mr Hassan Ayariga of the All People Congress (APC) as a presidential candidate because he made false declarations in his nomination forms.
According to the EC, Mr Ayariga would subsequently be referred to the Ghana Police Service and the Attorney General for investigations and prosecution on charges of perjury, making false declaration for office, deceiving a public officer and impersonation in respect of election.
Addressing a press conference in Accra on Monday, the EC chair Mrs Charlotte Osei said Mr Ayariga did not provide evidence on his statutory declaration as to his hometown or residence in the constituency as per the legal requirements.
“Similarly two of Mr Ayariga’s subscribers also subscribed for another presidential candidate in breach of regulations 7(4) in C. I. 94.”
Mr Osei explained that the implication was that the two subscribers were disqualified and therefore, Mr Ayariga does not have the requisite number of subscribers under Regulation 7(2) (b) of CI 94.
This means that after disqualifying those two subscribers, Mr Ayariga did not get the number of total subscribers required.
On the forms, the EC observed that the signatures of the two voters were different on the forms of the other presidential candidate even though their voter details were the same and therefore raised questions on the legitimacy of the signatures.
“The commission will therefore refer the matter on possible forgery of the signatures to the Ghana Police Service and Attorney General for investigations and prosecution. We will like to point out that making a false declaration in statutory declaration is a criminal offence, making a false declaration on forms for office is criminal offence, so it is perjury”, Mrs Osei said.
It 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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