Full text: EC disqualifies 5 presidential aspirants ahead of Election 2020
Source: myjoyonline

LET THE CITIZEN KNOW 19 TH OCTOBER 2020 ADDRESS DELEIVERED BY MRS. JEAN MENSA, CHAIRPERSON OF THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION, ON DECLARATION OF RESULTS FROM THE FILING OF NOMINATIONS BY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES FOR THE 2020 ELECTIONS ON MONDAY THE 19 TH OF OCTOBER, 2020 AT 4:00 PM Good afternoon citizens of Ghana and our friends from the media. We thank the good Lord for this day. His Grace and Mercy has brought us this far and will lead us to peaceful, credible, transparent and fair elections December, 2020 in Jesus’ mighty Name. On behalf of the Commission, I welcome you to today’s Let the Citizen Know. Today’s encounter is aimed at updating the public on the just ended Filing of Nominations by Presidential Aspirants who wish to contest the December 7 th 2020 Elections. As I emphasized during the weeklong process this is one of the most critical activities in the lead up to the December 2020 Elections, without which, the Commission cannot run the Elections. As a result we designated Monday 5 th October, 2020 to Friday 9 th October, 2020, for this important process. We thank all our Stakeholders for their cooperation with the Electoral Commission. It is worth noting that most of the Candidates who filed their nominations presented themselves in a courteous and civil manner. In a nutshell, we achieved our objective of ensuring a peaceful, seamless and productive exercise. It has been this Commission’s resolve to provide regular and comprehensive updates at every stage of the electoral process. Therefore having completed the process of receiving, reviewing and scrutinizing the Nomination Forms and documents from Presidential Aspirants allow me to update you accordingly. Set up and Conduct of the Nomination Filing Process in 2020 To enhance and ensure a transparent, credible, fair, peaceful and yet accountable electoral process and election in 2020, the Commission continues to develop innovations to ensure that we carry Citizens along in all our processes. This transparency was evident throughout the Registration and Exhibition Exercises and indeed throughout the week long Nomination process. As a Commission, we intend to be open and transparent in all our processes and keep you our distinguished stakeholders informed in a timely manner as we inch towards December, 2020. This year, the Commission made the Nomination Forms to Aspiring Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates available online. This helped ease the burden of travelling to the Commission to pick up the Forms and eliminated over-crowding at the Commission’s offices, thereby curbing the spread of the COVID 19 virus. The Commission also developed a detailed Checklist that embodied the criteria to be satisfied by Presidential Candidates as prescribed by law. This template guided the scoring and awarding of marks by Teams established by the Commission to review the Nomination Forms submitted. Moreover, four (4) weeks in advance Nomination Forms were made available on our website. Each Political Party or designated representative was given a unique code to access the Nomination Forms. This eliminated the incidence of different Candidates of the same Political Party filing nominations for the same position. Ladies and Gentlemen, This year, the Commission set up two (2) Teams which were tasked to review all the Forms submitted. The technical team scrutinised the Forms submitted to ensure that Aspirants satisfied the qualifications as set out in the law such as the; age requirements, fulfilment of tax obligations among others etc. We are confident that both Teams have been thorough and yet fair in their work Yet another welcome innovation was the five (5)-day period provided for the filing process as opposed to the two (2) days provided in previous nomination processes. This allowed enough time for Aspirants to correct any errors identified in their Forms. All in all these innovations helped eliminate the confusion and tension that characterised previous nomination processes. Filing of Nomination Forms by Presidential Aspirants As noted in our last Let The Citizen Know Seventeen (17) Presidential Aspirants filed their nominations to contest the December 7, Presidential Election. The Commission is happy to note that for the first time in our nation’s history, three (3) women put themselves up for nomination for the position of Presidential Candidate. This is a testament to the growth of our democratic space. Now to the reason why we are here. At the end of a thorough review process, I have the honour to present to you the Presidential Candidates who have qualified to contest the 2020 Presidential Elections. CANDIDATES CLEARED TO CONTEST IN THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Alfred Kwame Asiedu Walker, Independent Candidate Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo (New Patriotic Party) Christian Kwabena Andrews (Ghana Union Movement) Brigitte Akosua Dzogbenuku (Progressive Peoples Party) John Dramani Mahama (National Democratic Congress Akua Donkor (Ghana Freedom Party) Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings (National Democratic Party) Hassan Ayariga (All People’s Congress) Ivor Kobina Greenstreet (Convention People’s Party) Henry Herbert Lartey (Great Consolidated People’s Party) Percival Kofi Akpaloo (Liberal Party Ghana) David Asibi Ayindenaba Apasera. (People’s National Congress) CANDIDATES DISQUALIFICATION AND FURTHER REFERRAL TO THE POLICE FOR PROSECUTION ON THE GROUNDS OF FORGERY Kofi Koranteng (Independent Candidate) Mauvrich Kofi Gane (Independent Candidate) Akwasi Addai Odike (United Progressive Party) Kwasi Busumbru (People’s Action Party) Nana Agyenim Boateng (United Front Party) Distinguished citizens, these are your Presidential Candidates for the 2020 Presidential Elections. As we have emphasized time and time again, the Commission remains committed to conducting free, fair, credible, transparent and peaceful election. We entreat you our dear citizens to disregard any allegations of rigging and assertions of a flawed electoral process and election by any individual or section of our society. The transparency of our processes should give confidence to the citizenry that the Electoral Commission cannot rig an election. For the benefit of those who are not informed about our processes, every aspect of our Electoral process is monitored by the Political Parties. Right from Registration to the Election Day our Political Parties police and monitor all our processes. Here, permit me to briefly summarize our processes: Gazetting of registration, Exhibition and Voting Centres Registration - 21 days Exhibition - Provisional Register given to all Political Parties Political Parties provided with final Register Printing of Ballots Ballots statistics Seals Accompanying ballots to Police armories Election Day – Process is open and transparent, conducted under broad day light Ballots are inspected to ensure seals are intact Ballots are inspected to ensure seals are intact Voting is done in open spaces Political Party agents monitor processes and do a count of persons who vote. Counting is done in the full glare of Political Party Agents, the media and interested public. Results are then documented on pink sheets and signed by Party agents. Posted at Polling Stations It is after all this that the pink sheets are then sent to the Commission At the National Collation Centre, we also have Party agents who inspect the signed pink sheets that come in before they are certified by the Electoral Commission. Can someone tell us at which point of the transparent process, the Electoral Commission can rig the election? We use this platform to call all Political Parties and stakeholders who have genuine concerns to raise them us in the full glare of the public. Once we are informed about the weaknesses and gaps in the process outlined, we will take immediate steps to address and close all the gaps and report same to the public in a transparent, open and accountable manner. Until then we entreat the naysayers to cease their onslaught of trying to discredit a thorough and credible electoral process and a Commission which has been open and transparent in all its dealings. If for nothing at all, the current Commission has opened up all its processes to the public and removed the cloaks of secrecy that shrouded its activities and operations. We have laid bare our processes for all to see. Today the number of persons who registered by District, Region as well as the sex and age is known to any interested citizen. It is no longer secret Again the challenges encountered during the Exhibition Exercise were discussed openly by the Commission, solved in a timely manner and reported upon promptly. Constituencies such as Ashaiman which had some gaps in data have all their issues resolved. Just last week, we opened our doors to enable citizens observe the filing of Nominations by Aspiring Presidential Candidates. Through our media partners we have brought our processes and operations to every home. We have been transparent in all our dealings and intend to remain so. As we head towards the 7 th of December, we urge all of you Distinguished citizens to work with us to strengthen and uphold the integrity of our systems and the Commission as a whole. Our doors remain open. We assure our stakeholders that we are receptive to constructive feedback and advice. Indeed the feedback and advice from well-meaning Ghanaians has helped enrich our work and enabled us to serve you better. Before we close the curtains to our Let the Citizens know encounter today, we wish all the qualifying Candidates the best of luck in their bid to ascend the high office of the Presidency. We urge you all to engage in a decent campaign – a campaign based on policies and programs that will lead to the betterment of our society. As referees, our role is to arrange and organize orderly, fair, transparent, peaceful and credible election. We assure you that we are working to do just that. We do not have the power to determine who wins the elections. It is not in our power or control to determine the outcome of the election. That power lies with the good people of our dear country. The citizens and the citizens alone can determine who should lead them – Not the Electoral Commission. It is the Candidate who is given power to lead this country by the citizens who will be declared President of the Republic of Ghana by the Electoral Commission come the 7 th of December, 2020. Thankfully the Electoral Commission has institutionalised a fair, open, transparent and accountable process to guide the declaration of the results. To the aspiring Presidential Candidates who did not make this process, we wish you better luck next time. Your filing fees of One Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GHC100,000) will be refunded to you. To you our Distinguished citizens, we thank you for believing in us and walking this journey with us. We pledge that we will conduct ourselves in truth and integrity and organize fair, credible, transparent and peaceful election come 7th December, 2020. We will not let you down. On your part we charge you to uphold and defend the good name of Ghana and her institutions. So help us God. May God bless our Homeland Ghana and make our Nation great and strong. Let Peace Reign. MRS. JEAN MENSA CHAIRPERSON