The Electoral Commission (EC) cannot unilaterally issue a fiat to declare votes for a deceased candidate as rejected ballots, a United States-based Ghanaian Professor, Kwaku Asare has said while raising concerns about the decision of the commission to declare votes for the late Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) presidential candidate, Madam Akua Donkor, as rejected ballots.
He expresses the view that the decision of the election management body, without first amending Regulation 40 of the C.I. 127 which specifies the conditions under which a ballot may be rejected, will raise serious constitutional and legal concerns.
Prof Asare explains that the law should be amended to explicitly address scenarios where a candidate dies after ballots are printed but before the election is conducted.
Alternatively, he said, the EC could seek judicial clarification to determine how such votes should be treated under the current legal framework. "In Ghana's legal framework, the EC lacks the authority to unilaterally classify votes for a deceased candidate as rejected under Regulation 40 of C.I. 127.
