Presidential aspirant, Marricke Gane, disappointed in EC over disqualification

An independent presidential aspirant, Marricke Kofi Gane, says he would explore all available forums to resolve issues leading to his disqualification from the 2020 Presidential Election.

The Electoral Commission (EC) on Monday announced that 12 out of 17 aspirants had been cleared to contest the 2020 Elections.

Five others, including Mr Gane were disqualified based on technical grounds.

According to the Chairperson of the EC, Mrs Jean Mensah, the handwriting and signatures of different supporters of Mr Gane followed the same pattern and investigations by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service confirmed that the signatures were forged.

But a statement from Mr Gane’s team on Tuesday expressed disappointment in the EC’s decision to disqualify him.

The statement said per the EC’s rules of engagement, the team expected that the EC would communicate any inconsistencies concerning Mr Gane’s filing in order to allow for corrections.

Unfortunately, it said, no such communication ensued between the team and the EC after the filing.

“As a matter of fact, The Gane4Ghana team filed its nomination forms on October 8, 2020, which was within the stipulated time frame required by the Electoral Commission (EC). Per the rules and guidelines of the EC, and reiterated at the October 2, 2020 meeting, it was communicated that aspirants would be contacted immediately following any discrepancies concerning their filing in time to allow them time to correct any anomalies.

“Unfortunately, neither Mr Gane nor any member of the Gane4Ghana team was contacted time October 8, 2020 to inform to of any issues or alleged forgery as has been put forth by the EC on October 19, 2020,” the statement said.

It added that the team would “explore all the options available in order to resolve this matter.”

“We remain committed to the Ghana Deserves Better Agenda and will do all within our power to get on the ballot to allow Ghanaians to decide the way forward on Election Day,” it said.