The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has disqualified Philip Appiah Kubi, the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) flagbearer replacement after uncovering errors and illegalities on his nomination form.
EC Chair Jean Mensa made this announcement during a press conference on Tuesday, November 12, emphasising that the disqualification followed a careful review of the party’s submission.
Despite allowing the party to correct these discrepancies, Mrs Mensa stated that certain irregularities could not be overlooked, leading to Mr Kubi’s disqualification from contesting in the upcoming election.
She clarified that the EC is bound by its duty to ensure electoral integrity, and therefore could not accept documents with substantial legal issues, regardless of the GFP’s efforts to amend them.
“The law is very specific that for each district you must have two persons (sign the nomination forms). So, if you are a presidential candidate, the onus is on you to ensure that the supporters that you are presenting are indeed from that district.
“This is what we used to disqualify him because, on the face of his form, it was detected that some supporters had been brought from other districts to support him in districts where they were not registered voters,” she said.
Mrs Mensa stressed that the EC’s mandate to uphold the integrity of the electoral process prevents the acceptance of any irregularities, regardless of the party’s attempts to rectify them.
The GFP initially faced a major setback following the death of its founding leader and original flagbearer, Akua Donkor.
In light of this development, the Electoral Commission (EC) suspended printing ballot papers for the 2024 presidential elections.
The EC gave the GFP 10 days to nominate a new presidential candidate.