EC should have resorted to dialogue than go to court

Magdalene Teiko Larnyoh 13:58 - 10 November 2016

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A former president John Agyekum Kufuor has indicated that the Electoral Commission could have used a dialogue approach to solve the issues that led to legal suits against the Commission.

This follows the EC’s earlier disqualification of 13 presidential nominees out of the 17 aspirants who submitted their nomination forms to the EC.

This led to a number of legal suits by some of the disqualified parties. After an Accra High Court ruled in favour of the Progressive People’s Party, the EC filed a suit at the Supreme Court to quash the ruling of the High Court. The Supreme Court ruled in favour of the PPP.

But speaking at a programme dubbed “A Conversation on Leadership and the Future of Africa” at his residence yesterday [Wednesday], Kufuor “we needn’t have gone to court… if everybody had been mindful, including the Electoral Commission (EC), the Peace Council, government, perhaps the method of resolution should have been one of the alternative dispute resolutions.”

“What perhaps the Electoral Commission should have done should have been to invite everybody, sit down say let’s check this thing. This is not good so go and do it, I give you another week,” he added.

He also added that the EC needs to keep in mind that it is not above the laws of the land and must therefore strive to act within the boundaries of the law.

“No institution is sacrosanct. No one is above the law or should be above the law and when I say this I include even the Electoral Commission. Yes the constitution provides its independence but it is the same constitution that provides for a Supreme Court that can judicially review anything within the constitution.”