Court To Hear NDP’s Case Against EC Today

The Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court will today begin hearing the case between the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Electoral Commission over the disqualification of its Flagbearer, Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings.

The NDP Flagbearer refiled a suit at a Human Rights Division of the High Court after an Accra High Court struck out the initial lawsuit.

The refiling was necessitated after an Accra High Court  struck out the initial lawsuit challenging the disqualification.

According to the ruling delivered by Justice George K. Koomson, the decision to strike our the case was due to the wrong procedure used by Nana Konadu in the initial filing hence making the case “incompetent.”

In his ruling the judge indicated that the applicants were wrong to include an application for judicial review and the enforcement of fundamental human rights in one writ.

Konadu fights EC in court
Nana Konadu together with her party and her running mate sued the Electoral Commission, with the Attorney General, over her disqualification  from the presidential race.

They were seeking an “interlocutory injunction, prohibiting and restraining” the Electoral Commission and its agents from going ahead with the balloting of presidential candidate until the court settles the matter.

She also prayed the court to stop the EC from doing the following:

1. 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;
2. Allocating symbols and colours to the purportedly nominated candidates for the 2016 presidential election, without allocating symbols and colours to the 2nd applicant; and
3. 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 applicants nomination thereby wrongfully and illegal disqualifying the applicants from contesting in the 2016 presidential elections.”

They are also seeking an order quashing the EC's decision not to accept Konadu's nominations and an order compelling the EC to accept her nomination and to include her name on the ballot for the 2016 presidential election.

Nana Konadu was disqualified with 12 other presidential nominees because they failed to meet some requirements of the electoral laws ahead of the December polls.

-Citifmonline