The Peoples National Convention (PNC) has questioned the Electoral Commission (EC)’s decision to increase the filing fee of Presidential candidates in the upcoming elections slated for December 7 from the initial GH¢5, 000 to GH¢50, 000.
That of Parliamentary candidates have also being pegged at GH¢10,000 from the GH¢1,000 that was paid in the previous elections held in 2012.
Some have already spoken against the new fees which the EC thinks every party that wants to run the affairs of the nation must be able to raise and pay.
However, in a statement, General Secretary of the PNC, Atik Mohammed said “we hold the view that, the new fees are not only prohibitive, but also hold the prospect of excluding many from the democratic process.”
For him, “this action by the Electoral Commission reduces our democracy to a commodity for the highest bidder. Such a situation is objectionable and should be resisted by all,” describing it as outrageous.
His reason was that “increasing the nomination fees by 500% and 1000% for Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates respectively, is a clear communication by the EC that, it wants to limit participation in this year’s elections.”
According to him, “it further emphasizes the premium placed on cash and not content by the EC – a situation that can rob our country of all the major gains made in democratic consolidation as if to say that, the object of the democratic exercise is to select the wealthy. These unfortunate views are only acceptable in an oligarchy”, he noted.
Quite apart from that, Atik indicated that “the fees charged by the Electoral Commission do not form part of the pool of resources used to conduct the elections” for which reason he questioned the essence of demanding such high fees from political parties and candidates only to deposit them idly in the EC’s accounts.
“In view of the democratic injury this action by the Electoral Commission is likely to occasion, we are appealing to them to reduce the nomination fees to the 2012 levels, whereby Presidential Candidates and Parliamentary Candidates would pay GH¢5, 000 and GH¢ 1, 000 respectively”, he emphasised.
The PNC has therefore called on all other political parties that share their concern to join hands with them to pursue this agenda saying “we must stand together in defence of our democracy.”
They have since served notice of their determination to employ all tools to reverse the move.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu