A lawsuit filed by Marricke Gane Kofi against the Electoral Commission (EC), over his disqualification from the December 2020 election as an Independent Presidential candidate has been dismissed by the Criminal Division of the Accra High Court on Monday, November 30, 2020.
Mr. Gane, an independent presidential aspirant was disqualified by the EC for allegedly forging signatures of persons who endorsed his nomination forms.
Mr. Gane had petitioned the court to overrule the Electoral Commission’s decision on the basis that, his right to natural justice was breached when the EC failed to provide an opportunity for him to rectify alleged errors on his forms.
The court presided over by Her Ladyship, El-Freda Denkyi, in her judgment said the EC did no wrong since the errors constituted a case of fraud, and that puts Mr. Gane in a position where he lacks any rights to be protected by the court.
Her ladyship El-Freda Denkyi further ruled that, the reliefs being sought by Mr. Gane could not also be accepted because, he filed the suit ten days after the disqualification was announced and his case came up for hearing on the 23rd November 2020, which was 14 days to elections.
The judge explained that, the delay in filing the suit has tilted the balance of convenience towards the EC and that, granting the reliefs will mean the EC may breach the constitutional provision of holding elections on December 7, and the public would be denied their rights to choose their leader.
The court said the applicant does not deserve any of the reliefs he sought and also the fact that all provisions have been made by the EC ahead of the elections, hence dismissed the application.
The applicant who was one of the candidates disqualified from the race by Electoral Commission on grounds of alleged forgery was seeking an order through Certiorari.
Similarly, the High Court in a similar manner dismissed independent candidate, Kofi Koranteng’s claims against the Electoral Commission.
Mr. Koranteng turned to the judicial system to challenge the Electoral Commission’s decision to disqualify him from the 2020 presidential poll.
He had earlier told the court that, the Commission gave him a time frame to re-submit the flagged portions of his nomination forms; which he took and re-submitted on October 14, 2020.
He said he therefore expected that, the Commission would have given him a fair and reasonable treatment as mandated by article 23 of the 1992 Constitution.
The court, presided over by Her Ladyship Gifty Addo on Monday, November 30, 2020, found that Mr. Koranteng by his own admission had committed infractions in the process and that the Electoral Commission had not acted unreasonably.
In that light, his case was also dismissed.
5 candidates out of the 17 who submitted their applications as presidential aspirants got disqualified by the Electoral Commission on the 19th of October, 2020. The other three affected candidates were Akwasi Odike of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Kwasi Busumburu of the People’s Action Party (PAP), and the United Front Party’s (UFP) Agyenim Boateng.
