Independent presidential candidate Nana Kwame Bediako, known popularly as Cheddar , has declared plans to form a political party to accomplish the presidential goals he has toward developing Ghana.
The process, however, was thwarted by what Cheddar considers the Electoral Commission’s tardy response.
The real estate tycoon revealed on JoyNews AM Show that his group has filed an application to register his political party with the EC, and to fulfill all constitutional conditions.
According to him, it is already three months since he submitted his application but has not heard back from the EC despite meeting all the conditions.
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This is despite the I992 constitution stating in Act 574 (8)(2) that:
“The commission shall, not later than seven days after the receipt of application, issue to the political party a provisional certificate of registration and shall cause a notice of the application to be published in the Gazette after receipt, inviting objections from any person, concerning the name, aim, objects, constitution, rules, symbols, slogans and colours of the party.”
Despite having complied with all constitutional criteria, Nana Kwame Bediako observed that the EC has not responded.
“We do have a manifesto. We have a manifesto, we have a constitution and we have built 16 offices in the 16 regions. We’ve read the constitution and we’ve followed what we had to do—put in the application for a political party—but we were not responded to by the EC.
“After the seven days, when you pay and submit after the seven days, it’s been three months. We wrote a letter again and they haven’t responded,” he said.
Cheddar expresses hopes in EC
Even though the Electoral Commission took a while to respond, Nana Kwame Bediako is still hopeful that his application for political party registration will be approved. He stressed his determination to pursue his presidential quest independently, concentrating on matters critical to Ghana’s development, even while he awaited the EC’s certification.
“But I hope that the EC can hear me and say that let’s respond to this young man and we’re supposed to give him his provisional license so you know – if they had given us that we’ll be talking about the actual party and using the logos and using maybe our mottos and slogans and stuff like that.
“But since that has not happened, it doesn’t mean that it should stop the conversation or stop the mission or even restrict the vision. We’re still going ahead, we’re still going ahead with the New Force Movement,” he said.
