NDP heads to Human Rights Court with new suit against EC over disqualification

Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings has filed a new suit against the EC over her disqualification from the December polls barely 24 hours after a similar suit was struck out at an Accra High Court.

Mrs Rawlings this time filed the lawsuit at the Human Rights Division of the High Court to challenge the Electoral Commission’s decision.

The Human Rights Court has set Tuesday, November 1, 2016, to hear the case.

The National Democratic Party (NDP) and the former First Lady are seeking an “interlocutory injunction, prohibiting and restraining” the Electoral Commission and its agents from going ahead with the balloting of presidential candidates until the court settles the matter.

They are also praying the Court to compel the EC from doing the following:

- Posting any notices at any constituency centres, specifying the names of candidates purportedly nominated and the persons who have proposed and supported each of the purportedly nominated candidates for the 2016 presidential election, without including name of the 2nd application;

- Allocating symbols and colours to the purportedly nominated candidates for the 2016 presidential election, without allocating symbols and colours to the 2nd applicant; and

- Publishing any notices of poll in the Gazette and in places in constituencies around the country with respect to the 2016 presidential election, without including the name of the 2nd applicant.

The NDP flagbearer in another suit prayed the court to declare as illegal the deadline the EC set for receiving nominations and “a further declaration that the EC erred in law when it decided not to accept the applicant's nomination thereby wrongfully and illegal disqualifying the applicants from contesting in the 2016 presidential elections.”

She is also seeking an order quashing the EC’s decision not to accept Mrs Rawlings’ nominations and an order compelling the EC to accept her nomination and to include her name on the ballot for the 2016 presidential election.

At an Accra High Court Thursday Presiding Judge, Justice George K. Koomson, struck out the NDP’s suit citing the wrong procedure used by Mrs Rawlings to file, hence making the case “incompetent.”

The Judge also indicated that the applicants were wrong to include an application for judicial review and the enforcement of fundamental human rights in one writ.

The NDP presidential candidate was among 12 other candidates disqualified from contesting the December elections.

Chairperson of the Commission, Charlotte Osei said the disqualified aspirants did not meet the criteria for filing as presidential candidates.

The other rejected political parties are; Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), United Progressive Party (UPP), Reformed Patriotic Democrats (RPD), Progressive People’s Party (PPP), and the Great Consolidated People’s Party (GCPP).

The rest include; United Front Party (UFP), All People’s Congress (APC), and the Independent People’s Party (IPP).

The National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the Convention People's Party (CPP) and one independent presidential candidate have been cleared to contest the December polls.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | GN