The Ghana Center for Democratic Development
(CDD-Ghana) has taken note of the forward looking and unprecedented ruling of
the Supreme Court, yesterday, 7th November, 2016, ordering the Electoral
Commission to allow all disqualified presidential aspirants to correct the
errors on their forms and re-submit them to the Commission by close of day on
Tuesday 8th November 2016. The Center is however, dismayed by the news
that the EC at this late stage in the electoral process claims it has discovered
new errors on the nomination forms of the disqualified presidential aspirants.
The EC, as the news indicates, is therefore asking the aspirants to correct the
new errors, in addition to the earlier ones within the stipulated time
period.
The Center finds this new twist to the processing of nomination
forms of presidential aspirants deeply troubling, especially because it was the
EC that took the matter to the Supreme Court, ostensibly to bring finality to
the many suits at the courts challenging its decision to disqualify a number of
presidential aspirants. The Center also note that the EC implored the Supreme
Court to invoke its supervisory jurisdiction in order to avert a constitutional
crisis, taking into account the time sensitive nature of the 2016 electoral
timetable. It is difficult to comprehend the EC’s decision to introduce new
issues that have the potential to instigate new legal suits, which the Supreme
Court in its lucid ruling and extraordinary consequential orders, had sought to
abate – after the Court has heeded to the EC’s pleadings and issued pragmatic
orders for management of the process.
In our view, the claim of new
errors after the Supreme Court ruling is manifestly unfair and a breach of
administrative justice.
The EC detailed reasons for disqualifying the
thirteen presidential aspirants on 10th October 2016.It was for these reasons
that the aspirants went to court and obtained a favourable outcome. Therefore,
all presidential aspirants should have a legitimate expectation that they will
be asked to correct the mistakes that were publicly identified by the EC as
reasons for their disqualification, anything more than that is an improper use
of discretionary power.
The Center wishes to remind the EC and all key
election stakeholders that democratic governance and credible elections in
particular are what is at stake for Ghanaians and for Ghana on December 7.
Failure to manage the electoral process wisely puts our democracy at risk. Per
the electoral calendar, we have already missed the original date for the
publication of the Notice of Poll, which will now be published, hopefully, on
Thursday, 10th November 2016 in accordance with Supreme Court orders – that is
if the parties do not return to court.
We commend the Chief Justice and
the Judiciary for the display of great proactivity, and acting with a sense of
urgency and responsibility. Every effort must therefore be made to support their
initiative. However, the EC, presidential aspirants, and all stakeholders in
Ghana’s democratic governance must understand that it is not healthy or safe for
the Supreme Court of the land to be the only institution for preventing descent
into political chaos.
The Center respectively calls on the EC to pull
back from the brink of electoral and potential constitutional chaos, as well as
collapse of our nascent democratic experiment, and to allow the disqualified
aspirants to correct the errors that formed the basis of their earlier
disqualification, as ordered by the Supreme Court. Quick compliance with the
orders will also afford the EC a little more time to carry out critical tasks
ahead of this election including, educating voters about the voting procedure as
well as some of the new innovations it has introduced to deal with rejected
ballots and the transmission of results.
We call on all civil society
organizations, professional bodies, faith-based groups, youth groups, the union
movement, academia, and indeed on all citizens of Ghana to support the Center’s
call to the EC to avoid a potential constitutional crisis.
God bless
Ghana!
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