The Electoral Commission (EC) decision to disqualify the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) parliamentary candidate for the Amenfi Central has been characterized as naughty and deceptive by Edudzie Tamekloe, the party’s Head of Legal Affairs.
The EC’s rationale for the “disqualification is mind-boggling,” according to Edudzie Tamekloe, who spoke with Bernard Avle of the Citi Breakfast Show, since the organization was a party to an interlocutory injunction that prevented candidate Joana Gyan Cudjoe from winning the May 12 primary.
“The basis of the disqualification is the purported interlocutory injunction from the High Court in Sekondi which is extremely mischievous because clearly, the EC at all material times, was a party to the suit in the Sekondi Court.
“Each time we appeared before the judge in Sekondi, there was a representative for the EC and so the proceedings were known to the EC. When we annulled that election and decided to rerun it, they came to supervise the election and so for Samuel Tettey to refer to the injunction [in the disqualification] is completely disingenuous.”
Gyan Cudjoe was notified of her disqualification in a letter dated October 10 and signed by Samuel Tettey, the Deputy Chairman of the EC in charge of Operations. The letter stated that the Commission is obligated by the court judgment, which has not been stayed or dismissed.
The legal director of the NDC further charged that the EC was favoring one party over the other and excluding Joana from its evolution.
“When the EC opened filing, the party presented Joana as its nominee and thereafter, there was an indication that there was going to be the printing of the notice of poll, which was delayed and so we made enquiries and wrote a letter to the plaintiff and we thought this matter had ended, but on October 10, Samuel Tettey wrote a letter disqualifying Joana.
“The EC cannot act like an octopus and move everywhere looking to disqualify a candidate whose election it supervised.”
Source:Mybrytfmonline.com/Joseph Asare
