Five Presidential Aspirants who filed their nomination to contest for the December Elections have commended the Electoral Commission (EC) for putting in place the process to ensure free, fair and transparent general elections.
They said the Commission had been open and receptive to their concerns despite the fact that they had come against challenges in the filling of their nomination forms.
Madam Akua Donkor, Aspirant for Ghana Freedom Party after presenting her forms thanked the Commission for making the process a smooth one and urged them to remain steadfast and stay focused in the delivery of their mandate.
She commended the commission for organizing a successful voter’s registration despite the outbreak of the global pandemic COVID-19.
Dr Haassan Ayariga, Founder, and flagbearer of All People’s Congress (APC), urged the EC to prepare adequately to avert any challenges that may arise saying, “This election would be the test of the new voters register”.
He pleaded that he and his supporters had resolved to be agents of peace as their contributions towards sustaining the relative peace the nation was enjoying.
Dr Ayariga praised the EC, the new initiative introduced to ensure that all candidates had ample time to complete the forms.
He said he was much impressed that the EC Chair and his Commissioners had honoured and respected aspirants to receive their forms in person and not as had been the practice in the past.
An Independent Aspirant, Mr Kofi Koranteng, commended the commission for the smooth and transparent process and urged them to be led by the mantra Ghana First. He appealed to the public to support the commission to ensure peaceful, free and fair elections.
Flag bearer for the National Democratic Party (NDP), Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, said the party did not go through hurdles as experienced in the previous elections. “The lay down process for the nomination has been very friendly. The Commission provided a checklist to aid candidate in submitting the forms”, she said.
She advised other political parties, not to dramatise their disagreement with the Commission, but must settle such concerns with respect and civility.
Presidential Aspirants, Mr Ivor Greenstreet, added that they are ready to cooperate with the EC to ensure peaceful and fair general election.
The Chairperson of the Commission, Jean Mensa, after separately receiving the forms said as part of the Commission’s efforts to ensure a transparent, credible, and fair process, it had developed a detailed checklist that embodied the criteria to be satisfied by the presidential candidates as prescribed by law.
“The template will guide the scoring and awarding of marks by teams established by the Commission to scrutinise and review each of the Nomination Forms submitted,” she said.
This year, the Commission has set up two teams tasked to review all the forms submitted, namely the Technical Team and IT Team.
The Technical Team has been tasked to scrutinise the forms to ensure that the Presidential candidates meet the qualifications as set out in the law.
The IT Team, on the other hand, had been charged with the responsibility of scrutinising all the Voter IDs of the Presidential candidates and their supporters to verify their authenticity.
Mrs Mensa expressed the confidence that the five-day period provided for the filing process, as opposed to the two days provided in previous nomination processes, would give the candidates enough time to correct any error identified on their forms.
A total of 10 aspirants have so submitted their nominations as of 1400hours Wednesday, October 8.
The filling of nomination by the candidate would end today, Friday October 9.
