The Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana has disqualified Philip Appiah Kubi, the replacement presidential candidate for the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), due to alleged errors and inconsistencies found in his nomination documents.

This decision was announced by EC Chair Jean Mensa at a press briefing on Tuesday, November 12, who noted that the disqualification followed a detailed review of the party’s submission.

Mensa explained that while the GFP was given an opportunity to address these issues, some of the irregularities were deemed unacceptable, leading to the final disqualification.

"The candidates submitted their nomination forms on November 5, and our technical teams went to work immediately reviewing the nomination forms. At the end of the end of the process, they detected a number of errors and some illegalities within the forms. The candidate's attention was drawn to these errors, and the party was provided an opportunity to correct them. They did that. In the view of the commission, it was not in our blossom to provide the political party the opportunity to correct some of the illegalities that we found on the form. In that respect, the party did not draw their attention to it because the commission does not feel that it is in it bossom to allow any political party to correct illegalies with the form. The commission therefore as at yesterday wrote to the party and to the candidate disqualifying him from contesting the 2024 presidential elections," the EC stated

This turn of events has created further challenges for the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), which was already struggling after the unexpected death of its founder and original flagbearer, Akua Donkor, on October 15.

Her passing left the party scrambling to find a new candidate, prompting the Electoral Commission (EC) to offer a 10-day grace period for GFP to nominate a replacement, ultimately resulting in Mr. Kubi’s selection.

However, upon evaluating Mr. Kubi’s documents, the EC identified several serious issues that went beyond simple administrative mistakes.

Jean Mensa emphasized that the EC has a responsibility to uphold electoral standards and cannot accept documentation with significant legal discrepancies, regardless of GFP’s attempts to address them.

The EC Chair reaffirmed the Commission's dedication to a fair and legal electoral process, stressing that upholding these standards is essential to maintaining public confidence.