Special Aide to the presidential candidate of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), Nana Kwame Poku, has alleged that, the Ashanti Regional Chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Chairman Wontumi directed the Electoral Commission (EC) to disqualify the GFP from contesting in the upcoming December 7 elections.
According to him, Chairman Wontumi initially offered the GFP Ghc500,000 cash to support the NPP’s Presidential Candidate Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, but they refused. He claims this refusal angered Chairman Wontumi to take action and ensure the GFP’s disqualification from the elections. “I see this disqualification as a personal attack. Gyataba called us that Chairman Wontumi said we should come and take five billion old cedis (Ghc500,000) to declare our support for Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. Roman Fada, because he wanted the legacy of Akua Donkor to live on refused the money. Roman Fada said the late Akua Donkor did not form the party to be taking money and declaring support for others,” he added.
He argued that the reasons the EC based their disqualification on do not make sense to him. The Electoral Commission (EC) recently disqualified Philip Appiah Kubi, popularly known as Roman Fada, as the presidential candidate of the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) following the death of Akua Donkor.
The Chair of the EC, Jean Mensa, who announced this at an emergency meeting with representatives of the political parties said the GFP’s presidential candidate was disqualified following alleged irregularities and ‘illegitimate’ information detected on the nomination forms he submitted to the Commission. According to the EC chair, the Commission detected that the nomination forms contained multiple signatories for a district instead of one signatory per district, as stated in the electoral laws. She noted that although the party rectified some of the errors, others detected could not be glossed over under the electoral laws of the country, hence, the need for the Commission to disqualify Philip Appiah Kubi from contesting the December 7 elections.
