Ayariga advises EC Chair to always consult Supreme Court

The All People Congress (APC) has advised the Electoral Commission (EC) to always seek clarification from the Supreme Court on constitutional issues before taking critical decisions involving elections.

It said the disqualification of candidates seeking political appointment to lead the country was a major decision which the EC needed to have sought clarity from the Supreme Court before implementing.

“You don’t disqualify people for them to take you to court, win, before you get up to go to the Supreme Court to seek clarification and finality to the matter,’’ the General Secretary of the APC, Mr Razak Kojo Opoku,  said.

Court ruling

He was speaking in an interview on the ruling of an Accra High Court, which directed the EC to allow the presidential candidate of the party, Mr Hassan Ayariga, to contest the December 7 presidential election.

The party went to the high court following the disqualification of its presidential candidate, together with 12 others by the EC.

“We are very happy with the ruling. It was comprehensive and perfect and, as a party, we wish to urge our supporters to double their effort so that we can match the NDC and the NPP,’’ Mr Opoku said.

He said if the EC had gone to the Supreme Court to seek clarification before taking the decision, no party would have gone to the high court because the superior court would have already issued the guidelines. 

Mr Opoku wondered why the EC was concerned with the number of candidates contesting the presidential election, citing examples of some African countries where a sizeable number of candidates contested presidential elections and yet there were winners in those elections.

Decision was unnecessary

He said the decision of the commission to disqualify the 13 presidential aspirants was unnecessary and “a needless legal battle”, which was generating tension among the electorate.

Mr Opoku said the high court had vindicated the party because, “When the EC wrote to us explaining why we were disqualified, we submitted a replacement of the two people who endorsed a different candidate, but EC told us what we had done was illegal’’.

He said the party was happy that the high court directed the EC to accept the party’s replacement.

Interest of the EC

Mr Opoku questioned what the EC stood to gain by disqualifying citizens who had the desire to lead the country and was surprised that the EC had gone to the Supreme Court over Dr Nduom’s case after the high court’s ruling.

He expressed surprise that the EC was interested in disqualifying Dr Nduom and wondered whether “Dr Nduom is in competition with the EC chair’’.

“We are praying that the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) wins the case on Monday so that such court cases do not throw the election calendar out of focus,’’ he said.

He expressed the belief that the EC erred in implementing the law and should accept its fault instead of “now resorting to the Supreme Court’’.

Supreme Court ruling

Mr Opoku dismissed the assertion that the Supreme Court ruling on the PPP case on Monday would automatically affect the other parties also in court against the EC.

He stressed that what was before the Supreme Court was EC versus the PPP and an issue between the two had nothing to do with the APC, describing such assertions as vile propaganda which should be stopped immediately.

Mr Opoku said the case for which his party went to court was different from the PPP’s and, therefore, a ruling on PPP could not affect APC.