Nana Kwame Bediako, an independent presidential aspirant, expressed his intention to establish a political party to pursue his presidential ambitions.
However, his plans faced an obstacle due to what he perceives as the Electoral Commission’s delayed response. The real estate mogul disclosed on JoyNews’ AM Show that his team had completed all constitutional requirements and submitted an application to register his political party with the EC.
Despite fulfilling these requirements, Cheddar, as he is also known, has not received any response from the EC after three months of filing his application.
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.”
Nana Kwame Bediako noted that while he has fulfilled all constitutional requirements, the EC has not been forthcoming with a response.
“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.
Despite the delay in the Electoral Commission’s response, Nana Kwame Bediako remains optimistic about a positive outcome for his political party registration application. While anticipating the EC’s confirmation, he emphasised his commitment to pursue his presidential ambition independently, focusing on crucial issues for Ghana’s development.
“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.