EC fixes Oct 16,17 • For filing of nomination

The Electoral Commission (EC) has fixed October 16 and 17, 2008 for the filing of nominations for presidential candidates for the 2008 elections.
Aspiring presidential candidates have three weeks to pick their forms before the filing date while that of parliamentary will open two weeks before time.
The Chairman of the EC, Dr Kwadwo Afari Gyan, disclosed this to the political parties at a national Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting in Accra yesterday.
According to sources at the meeting the EC also fixed September 12 to 16 for people who could not have their photographs taken during the recent limited registration exercise to do so for their identity cards.
This has been confirmed by representatives of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), National Democratic Congress (NDC) and People’s National Convention (PNC) who were at the meeting.
When contacted, the Director of Public Affairs, Mr Owusu-Parry, said “IPAC meetings are not for public consumption, so I cannot comment on it”.
Many prospective voters could not have their photographs taken during the last registration exercise because the materials for the photographs ran out and the commission had to import more to make for the shortfall.
The source said after the photo-taking exercise, the register would be exhibited from October 5 to 11 at all centres where registration took place and that applicants must call at the centre where they registered with their registration slips for their photographs to be taken and the identity cards laminated.
Issues discussed at the meeting include the exhibition and cleaning of the register and the filing of nominations.
Later in an interview Mr Peter Mac Manu, National Chairman of the NPP, said although the dates were close to the election, December 7, 2008, it was within the stipulated lawful time.
He said once the date was within the Public Elections Regulation, “we have no qualms about it”.
The National Organiser of the NDC, Mr Samuel Ofosu Ampofo, said the party reiterated its concern that the EC was late as far as its calendar was concerned “but with the kind of situation we find ourselves in, we will take it like that”.
He expressed the hope that the EC would not come again to postpone the date as it did with the limited registration exercise.
He also said the party was not comfortable with the five days for the exhibition of the register, which involved huge numbers of people whose registration were challenged.
Mr Ampofo described as unacceptable, the reason that printing copies of the register with photographs of electorates would be expensive for the EC, hence the EC’s resolve to provide political parties with compact disc copies that did not include photographs.
The Director of Operations of the CPP, Mr Ekow Duncan, said the party accepted the date and would work within it once it was within the law.