EC clears Nduom, Konadu and Mahama to contest in presidential race

The Electoral Commission (EC) has cleared three of the earlier disqualified presidential nominees to contest in the upcoming presidential elections in December.

The three are the Progressive People’s Party Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, National Democratic Party’s Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings and the presidential nominee of the People’s National Convention Edward Mahama.

This brings the number of contestants in the presidential race to seven.

The parties who successfully submitted their forms include the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), National Democratic Party (NDP), All People’s Congress (APC), Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP), and United Progressive Party (UPP).

The rest are the United Front Party (UFP), People’s National Convention (PNC), and an independent candidate, Asiedu Walker.

The candidates who could not submit their forms stand automatically disqualified.

The Electoral Commission was hopeful that the forms resubmitted by the candidates would meet the requirement of the C.I.94, the law governing the 2016 elections but not all the submitted forms met the requirement.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the election management body to extend the nomination period to November 8, and allow the candidates to correct their mistakes in order to contest the polls.

The court also ordered the discontinuation of the various court cases regarding the disqualification of other presidential aspirants.

The ruling followed an application filed at the Supreme Court by the EC after it was dissatisfied with an Accra High Court ruling describing its disqualification of PPP's Presidential Candidate, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom as unfair.