The Electoral Commission (EC) has announced that it has set up two committees to review, and scrutinise the information provided by presidential candidate hopefuls on their nomination forms.
The Commission said the establishment of the two committees is to promptly detect any errors that may be contained on the form and to ensure compliance.
This move, the Commission believes, would avoid previous situations where the errors were not detected early enough for corrections leading to the disqualification of some candidates.
Chairperson of the Commission, Mrs Jean Mensa, who announced this in Accra yesterday when the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, submitted his nomination explained the roles of the teams.
“The technical team has been tasked to review nomination forms to ensure that the presidential candidates meet the qualifications as set out by law i.e the candidate is at least 40 years, satisfied all tax obligations, nominated a vice presidential candidate amongst others.
“The IT team has been charged with the responsibility of scrutinising the voter identity cards of presidential candidates and the endorsers so as to verify whether the candidate and his endorsers are indeed registered voters,” she elaborated.
Both teams, Mrs Mensa said had been given adequate training and oriented to carry out their functions as prescribed by law fairly but firmly.
“The guiding principles for both teams is clear. They are to operate within the confines of the law. They are not to exercise discretion in any matter. They have been tasked to be fair and yet firm in executing their duties.
“We have no doubts that the process will be transparent, fair and peaceful,” she assured.
According to her, the setting of the teams form part of the Commission’s effort to ensure “transparent, credible and accountable” process leading to the polls.
She said a detailed checklist that embodies the criteria to be satisfied by the candidates had been developed to guide the “scoring and awarding” of marks by the teams.
The five-day nomination submission window, she said, would allow candidates to be able to correct any anomaly that might be found on the form.
“We are confident that this will eliminate the tensions and rancour that characterised the filing process prior to the 2020 elections,” she said.
Mrs Mensa recommitted the Commission to “a free, fair, transparent and credible” process to ensure that the electorate exercised their franchise freely.
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI
