Warning! EC To Disqualify Candidates For Wrong Information

Mr Gabriel Manu, Tema Metropolitan Electoral Officer, on Tuesday advised parliamentary candidates picking election nomination forms to critically read and follow all instructions to avoid disqualification. Mr Manu who gave the advice in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), stated that some prospective candidates are mostly disqualified due to their failure to follow the instructions stated in the nomination forms. The Electoral Commission, he said, has currently issued notice of election inviting prospective presidential and parliamentary candidates to pick nomination forms which was to be returned between October 17 and 18. He added that seven candidates from the various political parties in the two constituencies in the Tema Metropolis have so far picked the nomination forms since Monday when the picking of nomination forms were opened. Mentioning some of the requirements, he indicated that the candidate must be a Ghanaian registered voter who is at least 21 years of age. Mr Manu added that the applicant needed a proposer, a seconder and 18 registered voters from the constituency he or she wanted to contest, to fill part of the nomination form before its submission. He also stated that a tax certificate and four passport size pictures on red background with both ears showing, in addition to banker�s draft with the face value of GH� 1,000, would also be added during submission. Meanwhile, out of about 244,000 total registered voters in the Tema East and Tema West constituencies, 136,038 representing 56 percent checked their data during the recently held voters� register exhibition exercise. The Kpone-Katamanso Constituency in the Kpone-Katamanso District also recorded 30,111 electorates participating in the exercise, this represented 39 percent of the 79,000 names in the register. Mr Manu noted that six people were reported dead while majority of the complaints received were age differences, mistakes in spelling of names and omissions of some names. He announced that his outfit was currently handling transfer cases and proxy voting and therefore urged registered voters to report to the office before October 20.