The Criminal Division of the Accra High Court presided over by Justice El-Freda Denkyi will rule on an application filed by Marricke Kofi Gane to reverse his disqualification from the December 2020 general elections as an Independent Presidential candidate on 30 November 2020.

Mr Gane was disqualified from the race by the Electoral Commission (EC) on grounds of alleged forgery.

He was disqualified in October together with four others.

The EC’s technical team found that a number of the signatures endorsing his form had a similar pattern.

According to the commission, police subsequently came to the conclusion that a number of the signatures endorsing his forms were fake.

Mr Gane, however, wants the Court to restrain the EC from printing the ballot papers for the Presidential poll without his name on it.

He, thus, filed an application for Certiorari in the nature of judicial review, demanding that the High Court invokes its supervisory jurisdiction against the EC’s decision to disqualify him from the 2020 polls.

Mr Gane, through his lawyer Nurudeen Saeed, argued that he was not given the opportunity to be heard on the alleged case of forgery and improprieties against him.

He further claimed that, even though the EC said they have referred the matter to the Criminal Investigations Department of the Ghana Police service, neither he nor his supporters have been invited for questioning.

He argued that such a move is in breach of natural justice.

Mr Gane prayed the court to order the EC to put his name on the presidential ballot of the 2020 ballot paper.

Reacting to claims by the EC lawyers that, the court cannot make any declaration in the nature of what the applicant was asking because the court does not have the nomination form to make proper judgement, he said, respondent has tied the hands of the applicant by keeping his nomination form from him and want to profit from same.

The EC, led by lawyer Justice Amenuvor while arguing their case on the point of law said a Certiorari application is discretionary in nature but does not act as an automatic grant, adding that, the court cannot make the said orders or declarations because it does not have the said nomination forms to understand what actually happened.

Justice Amenuvor, therefore, prayed the court to withdraw the application totally.