Ghana’s Electoral Commission approves 13 candidates for December presidential election

September 21 (EUROPA PRESS) –

Ghana’s Electoral Commission (EC) on Friday officially approved a list of 13 candidates who will be eligible to run in the country’s upcoming presidential elections, scheduled for December.

The list includes Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia of the ruling New Patriotic Party and former President and main opposition leader John Dramani Mahama of the National Democratic Congress, according to a statement by the deputy chairman of the commission responsible for operations, Samuel Tettey, reported by the newspaper ‘Joy Online’.

Nine of the 13 approved candidates are running through the list of political parties, while the remaining four candidates are contesting as independent candidates. Among all the options, Bawumia will appear first on the ballot papers and Mahama will be ranked eighth.

During the candidate selection process, a total of eleven representatives were also disqualified for not meeting all the requirements of the Commission. Among them are Bernard Mornah of the People’s National Convention (PNC), Janet Nabla, an independent candidate, and Kofi Asamoah Siaw of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP).

The EC has argued that “the disqualification process was carried out in accordance with electoral regulations, guaranteeing impartiality and transparency throughout the process.”

He added that the disqualified candidates were given the opportunity to correct the errors in their application forms and that “unfortunately” they did not do so, according to the CNR website.

The world’s second-largest cocoa producer and Africa’s biggest gold producer goes to the polls on December 7 to elect a new leader as President Nana Akufo-Addo’s second and final four-year term comes to an end.