Bernard Mornah
The Supreme Court (SC) last Friday further dashed the hopes of the 2024 flagbearer of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Bernard Mornah, by dismissing his application challenging his disqualification by the Electoral Commission (EC).
He had filed an application before the court seeking to set aside a decision of the High Court which agreed with the EC’s decision to disqualify him as a result of certain errors and infractions on his nomination form.
The Apex Court during an emergency sitting, presided over by Justice Amadu Tanko, dismissed the application for certiorari seeking to quash the High Court decision delivered last month by Justice Richard Apietu, thereby upholding the decision of the High Court.
On October 21, 2024, a High Court in Accra dismissed an application seeking to set aside the decision of the EC which disqualified Mr. Mornah from contesting the 2024 Presidential election.
The court’s decision affirmed the EC’s disqualification and ended Mr. Mornah’s hopes of appearing on the Presidential ballot for the December 7 election.
Mr. Mornah was asking the court to overturn his disqualification by the EC, claiming his right to natural justice had been breached because he was not given an opportunity to correct the alleged errors detected by the EC on his nomination forms.
The court presided over by Justice Richard Apietu, in his decision held that from the evidence before the court, the EC gave Mr. Mornah an opportunity to correct the errors contained on the nomination forms but he refused or neglected to correct them.
The court also held that Mr. Mornah failed to do due diligence and should have been meticulous with the nomination form instead of turning round to blame the EC for his disqualification.
Justice Apietu in his decision held that both parties acknowledged that the EC informed Mr. Mornah about the anomalies, he picked up the nomination form on September 14, 2024 and returned it on the same day with the errors, hence he cannot say he was not given an opportunity to be heard.
The Judge said the PNC has contested elections since 1992, giving Mr. Mornah a wealth of experience when it comes to contesting presidential election, hence should have been meticulous in handling his form.
Justice Apietu also observed that four signatures belonging to four individuals were signed by the same person, indicating that it could not be a coincidence that the same signature belonged to four different persons.
“In my considered view, this is a strong ground for the disqualification of the applicant” the judge held while refusing the grant of the application and subsequently dismissed it.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak