Raymond Atuguba, counsel for People's National Convention (PNC) Presidential candidate has argued in court that the Electoral Commission was unreasonable in disqualifying his client, Dr. Edward Mahama from the 2016 presidential elections.

At the second day of hearing his suit, Dr. Raymond Atuguba said the EC violated his client's fundamental human right to contest elections by disqualifying him on the basis of errors on his client's presidential nomination forms.

Dr. Atuguba wondered why the EC was so fixated on errors which could easily have been corrected.

Reminding the EC of its own propensity to make mistakes, Dr. Atuguba said the EC's lack of diligence was exposed in the 2013 presidential election petition heard at the Supreme Court.

The main opposition NPP went to court praying the highest court of the land to overturn the EC's declaration of NDC candidate John Mahama as winner of the 2012 elections on the basis of infractions and irregularities found on results sheets.

"The EC in the 2012 election petition made terrible mistakes such as not signing pink sheets, the Supreme Court forgave them but they don't want to forgive us," he argued.

In a five-minute oral presentation, Dr. Atuguba said forgiveness in this case required the EC to call his client to rectify his 'mistakes'.

Raymond Atuguba

Atuguba said the Public Elections Regulations (C.I94) places an obligation on the EC to provide the applicant an opportunity to correct mistakes if need be.

Atuguba concluded his submissions by pointing out that the country's democracy could gradually be reduced to a one-party state if the participation of other political parties is stifled by the unreasonable actions of the EC

"To conclude, the EC acted unreasonably, we have the subscribers here who are ready to testify, this case is about our democracy, it's about whether Ghana returns into a one party state of 1960 or remain multi party.

Making a counter-argument, counsel for EC Thaddeus Sory said the applicant cannot claim that some of his fundamental human rights including his right to work has been violated.

Sory said that if Mahama is claiming that his right to work has been violated by the EC, he could as well sue every voter who does not vote to make him president.

"If he says he wants to be President ,does that mean we are supposed to vote for him such that if he doesn't win he can sue all of us for not electing him saying we have denied him of his right to work".

Thaddeus also said the PNC as a party cannot have fundamental human rights. He said Article 33 which grants the Protection of Rights by the Court refers to persons not political parties.

This is why the 2013 presidential election petition was brought by the Presidential candidate of the NPP as the first applicant not the NPP as a party.

He also said the election petition which Atuguba refers to should rather teach the lesson that some errors are punishable not necessarily forgivable.

On a sarcastic note, Thaddeus Sory said even if Mahama is given a December deadline to correct his errors, he would still make a mistake.

This is because even  on the affidavit which the applicant brought to court there were also mistakes.

"He has shown that he will not even be President if we allow him to correct the errors on his form, because in his documents to the court about the subscribers, there are even errors there"

The court adjourned sitting to November 10 when the court is expected to deliver its judgment.