With only today left for the EC to end filing of nomination forms by presidential aspirants, 12 candidates and their running mates have so far submitted their forms.
Out of the number two Independent candidates and eight candidates representing political parties out of the 14 aspirants downloaded the EC nomination forms online.
Those who have not yet presented their forms face a daunting task since they could not avail themselves the opportunity to correct any mistake should the need arise because the nomination window will be closed today.
The issue could be non-negotiable on the part of the EC since they have increased the filing of the nomination forms from two days in previous exercise to five days and used the current exercise repeatedly to remind aspirants to file early enough to get the space to effect corrections should it become necessary.
The likelihood of that happening was evident yesterday as the Ghanaian Times saw the presidential aspirant for the Ghana Union Movement (GUM), Rev. Alfred Andrew re-submitting his nomination forms after mistakes were detected in the one he had submitted earlier on Tuesday.
In a short interview with the Ghanaian Times before dashing to the conference room to resubmit his forms, he said his attention had been drawn to some few anomalies in the forms, thus, the need to correct and resubmit them, hoping that the hurdle would be cleared.
Mr Hassan Ayariga, presidential hopeful for All People’s Congress (APC) and his vice, Frank Yao Quadey, in submitting their forms yesterday pleaded with the Commission to give them space to correct their mistakes should it become necessary.
He said irrespective of the challenges the EC was confronted with, they must rise above the challenge to conduct free and fair elections, especially, with the new voters register which might come with possible challenges on the election day.
Mr Ivor Greenstreet, presidential aspirant for the Convention People’s Party(CPP) with the running mate, Prof. Emmanuel Bobobee who were at the Commission’s headquarters to submit their forms equally pleaded for time to correct any mistake since they had challenges in getting eligible voters to endorse the forms when their personal identification numbers were changed by the EC in some circumstances.
He said the party was ready to partner with the EC to ensure peaceful, free and fair elections adding that they were ready to engage the Commission at any time to achieve that objective.
Nana Konadu Agyeman-Rawlings, the flag bearer of the National Democratic Party (NDP) who submitted the forms accompanied by Alhaji Mohammed Frimpong, the party’s General Secretary took the opportunity to appeal to all stakeholders to exercise restraint for the EC to conduct a peaceful elections.
Madam Akua Donkor, presidential aspirant for Ghana Freedom Party who came with her running mate, Adakabre Frimpong Manso while submitting their forms also asked the Commission to ensure peaceful, free and fair elections.
An independent candidate, Kofi Koranteng and the running mate, Carl Ebo Morgan also submitted their forms using the occasion to ask for unity and urge all to put Ghana first in the race to elect a leader to lead the country.
The next presidential aspirant to submit the nomination forms for the day was Dr Henry Lartey, the flagbearer for the Ghana Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and his running mate Andrew Bampoe Sekyi.
On his part, Dr Lartey said, it was his hope that the EC would conduct credible, free and fair elections.
The seventh presidential aspirant for the day was an independent candidate, Marrick Kofi Gane and his running mate Dr Ofosu Baako who also gave his unflinching support to the EC to conduct credible elections reflecting the will of Ghanaians.
Mrs Jean Mensa, the Chairperson of the EC who also doubles as the Returning Officer for the Presidential election after receiving the forms reiterated that by a provision in the Constitutional Instrument to conduct this year’s election, anybody who registered during the compilation of the new voters register, could endorse an aspirant even though the new register has not been certified and remained provisional as at the moment.
She as usual took all the aspirants who presented their documents on the day through the process of submitting the nomination forms and the laws governing the electoral process assuring them that they would be informed of the outcome of the eligibility to vie for the election after scrutiny and vetting of the documents.
BY LAWRENCE MARKWEI
