Nduom vs EC: Full court ruling

An Accra High Court presided over by His Lordship George Kyei Baffour has instructed the Electoral Commission (EC) to give an opportunity to the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) to correct anomalies on their nomination papers.

The judge stated that EC flouted its own regulations as spelt out in the Constitutional Instrument (CI 44).

“I will proceed after quashing the decision of the Respondents disqualifying the Applicant as a candidate and order that the Respondents afford opportunity to the Applicant to make the necessary alteration or amendment to its nomination paper for it to receive same and then proceed to determine whether the Applicant had met all the criteria laid down by the laws of the Republic, in line with its duty laid down by C.I. 94. EC has no basis to complain that nomination period has closed when they did not set one. They only set nomination day under regulation 7 but not nomination period under regulation 9(2) as I have already found. The time frame to afford the Applicant is entirely within the discretion of the Respondents being mindful of the limited time available for the elections on December 7, 2016,” Justice Eric K. Baffour ruled.

Dr. Nduom was part of the 13 disqualified presidential nominees by the EC over various anomalies identified in their forms.

For Dr Nduom in particular the EC said he was disqualified because one of his 432 subscribers, Richard Aseda, endorsed the nomination papers in two separate districts in the Central and Volta Regions.
The businessman argued he was unfairly treated and therefore headed to court.

Click here to read the full judgement