Asiedu Nketia
General Secretary of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) has described as unnecessary the hullabaloo that has characterized the announcement of filing fees by the Electoral Commission (EC) for both parliamentary and presidential candidates contesting the December 7 polls.
According to Johnson Asiedu Nketia, the GH? 50,000 for presidential candidates and GH?10,000 for parliamentary candidates are ‘peanuts’ as compared to what is charged by political parties in their internal contests.
Some political parties have criticised the EC for what they described as astronomical filing fees for nomination forms to contest the December 7 general elections.
The figure announced by the Commission during an Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting Thursday, according to reports, is a 1,000 per cent increment from the previous amount.
This decision has anger minority political parties like the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) who have accused the EC of monetizing the process.
But Johnson Asiedu Nketia on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Friday said political parties should rather commend the EC for the fee.
He explained that, the EC will refund monies to political parties who get more than 15 percent of the total votes of both presidential and parliamentary elections.
“The EC is just holding the money in trust to ensure political parties are committed to the process but they will refund it if you get 15 percent of the total votes cast. We in the NDC have been benefitting and it helps us run our activities” he added.
The NDC scribe popularly known as General Mosquito said the NDC and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) have no moral right to object to the filing fee because “we charged more than fees for our internal elections”.
“If people clamour to pay huge sums of money to contest our [NDC, NPP] internal elections, why not pay this [GH? 50,000, GH?10,000] which will guarantee you power” he stated.
General Mosquito said NDC will not object to the 500 percent increment announced by the EC.
But Policy advisor of the Progressive Peoples Party (PPP), Kofi Asamoah Siaw described the astronomical increase as “a path of political exclusion”.
He said the astronomical increase is part of a conspiracy by government to form a “one party state” – a development he said is a recipe for disaster.
Kofi Asamoah Siaw is hoping the EC will reduce the amount to prevent the monetization of Ghana’s democratic process.
-Adomonline