Audi Alteram Partem Rule Must Apply!

The Electoral Commission (EC) on Monday disqualified some five presidential aspirants from contesting the 2020 general elections.

According to the Commission the five namely- independent candidates Kofi Koranteng, Marricke Kofi Gane, Akwasi Odike of the United Progressive Party (UPP), Kwesi Busumburu of the People’s National Party (PNP) and the United Front Party’s (UFP) Agyenim Boateng have breached some rules.

Their cases in the view of the EC bothered on allegations of forgery of signatures and the manufacturing of endorsees which will be forwarded to the Police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) for further probe.

The EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa is quoted as having stated that that their decision was based on the verification and authentication reports it received from its technical team.

Despite this, the EC has also indicated that the GH¢100,000 filing fee will be refunded to all disqualified aspirants in line with the rules surrounding the process.

Interestingly, multiples sources say there is currently no appeal process open to the disqualified ‘presidents’ to seek redress.

This position, THE NEW PUBLISHER dare say is a bit on the high side and a slap on the face of natural justice and fairness.

The paper holds that there must be avenues for the disqualified persons to seek redress within the internal structures of the Commission instead of watching them to carry through with their threats of going to court.

In 2016 the then EC Chairperson was also bedeviled with needless suits in matters that just giving the aspirants a ‘fair hearing’ could have solved.

It is our considered opinion that, the EC must endeavor to be fair to all the parties because it is the ‘referee’ and the neutral arbiter in the 2020 polls and as such is expected to be neutral.

Its current posture of having to shut the stable to other equally important horses in this case the aspirant’s leaves us with nothing short of viewing the EC’s position as simply writing-off the relevance of the other aspirants.

THE NEW PUBLISHER however, wishes to tell the EC that the mere fact that a decision affects rights or interests is sufficient to subject the decision to the procedures required by natural justice.