The Electoral Commission (EC) has decided to keep the positions on the presidential ballot paper unchanged, despite the disqualification of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) candidate.
In an emergency meeting with political parties in Accra, the EC announced that Mr. Philip Appiah Kubi, also known as Roman Fada, had been disqualified due to “errors and illegalities” in his nomination forms.
The EC had previously suspended the printing of the presidential ballot papers following the death of Madam Akua Donkor, the GFP’s presidential candidate, on October 28, 2024.
The Commission allowed the GFP ten days to replace its flagbearer, as per Article 50 (4) of the 1992 Constitution. Last week, the GFP nominated Mr. Appiah Kubi, who had been Madam Donkor’s running mate, as the party’s new presidential candidate for the 2024 elections.
Addressing the representatives of the political parties on Tuesday, Mrs Jean Mensa, Chairperson, EC, said the disqualification of Mr Appiah Kubi was warranted by some “errors and illegalities” found in his nomination forms.
She said the Commission drew the attention of the Party to the said errors, but the Party failed to meet the requirements within the grace period.
“The law is very specific that for each district you must have two persons (sign the nomination forms). So, if you are a presidential candidate, the onus is on you to ensure that the supporters that you are presenting are indeed from that district.
“This is what we used to disqualify him because on the face of his form, it was detected that some supporters had been brought from other districts to support him in districts where they were not registered voters,” she said.
Mrs Mensa said the name, image, and party logo of Madam Akua Donkor would be maintained on the ballot paper but any vote for the deceased candidate would be annulled.
She said the law did not provide clear guidelines on what the Commission should do in the event of a deceased presidential candidate present on the ballot paper.
“We don’t have very clear provisions. I believe that after the elections, we can look at the C.I. 127 and fine-tune it to take care of such situations,” she said.
The EC said printing of the presidential ballot papers were about 90 per cent complete and thus printing would resume immediately.
Mr Richard Botchway, National Organiser, GFP, welcomed the EC’s decision to maintain Madam Akua Donkor’s name and image on the ballot paper, describing it as the “best decision for the Party.”
He said the Party would meet after Madam Akua Donkor’s burial to decide on the future of the GFP.
Dr. Rashid Tanko-Computer, Deputy Director of Elections and I.T. for the National Democratic Congress, welcomed the EC’s decision to maintain the positions on the presidential ballot paper.
He said the NDC had earlier proposed that the ballot positions should not change, and the Party was glad that the Commission maintained the positions “at it pleases.”
The EC last week presented the certified final voters’ register to political parties and independent aspirants for the 2024 General Election.
Per the summaries of the Register published by the Commission, there were a total of 18,640,811 on the Certified Voters Register.
Eligible Ghanaian voters will go to the polls to elect a president and 276 Members of Parliament on December 7, 2024.
