Goosie Tanoh
As the brouhaha over the excessive filing fee for the presidential election of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) appears to be dying, one of the leading contenders, Goosie Tanoh, has announced his intention to pick nomination forms today, which is the last day of the exercise.
He is expected to visit the NDC’s Adabraka headquarters in Accra to pick the forms after paying GH¢20,000.
The initial deadline for picking the forms was December 4, 2018, but Mr. Tanoh and seven other contestants failed to pick the forms apparently in protest against the GH¢400,000 the party had earlier set as filing fee.
Goosie Tanoh, Alban Bagbin, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Sylvester Mensah, Joshua Alabi, Alhaji Nurudeen Iddrisu, Stephen Atubiga and Elikplim Agbemava, peeved by the amount set by the party as filing fees, petitioned NDC’s Council of Elders for a downward review.
That prompted former President Jerry John Rawlings, who is the founder of the NDC, to intervene in the matter.
He held a meeting with the National Executive Council of the party, which led to the reduction of the filing fee by GH¢100,000.
Even though the GH¢300,000 which the aspirants are now expected to pay as filing fee is still on the high side as compared to the GH¢50,000 set by the NDC in 2015 for the 2016 presidential elections, Mr. Tanoh, who is poised to lead the party into the 2020 elections, is going ahead to pick the forms.
At the end of the original deadline on December 4, 2018, five aspirants namely, former President John Dramani Mahama, who is tipped to win the elections scheduled for January 26, 2019; former Vice Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA), Joshua Alabi; ex-Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Sylvester Adinam Mensah; Stephen Atubiga, a member of the NDC Communications Team and Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K. Bagbin, picked the nomination forms.
Two other aspirants, including Spio, are said to have also picked their forms after the extension, bringing the total number of contestants to eight in addition to Goosie.
Initially, it was unclear whether Mr. Tanoh and oil and gas consultant, Nurideen Iddrisu; Member of Parliament (MP) for Cape Coast South; former Trade and Industry Minister, Ekwo Spio-Garbrah; George Kwaku Ricketts Hagan; a member of the NDC’s communications team, Lawyer Elikplim Agbemava; David Dotse Kwame Kuwadah; former Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, Kojo Bonsu, who did not pick form before the deadline, were going to be disqualified by the party.
But following the intervention of the party’s Council of Elders, the deadline was extended from December 4th to 8th, which enabled Mr. Spio-Garbrah to pick his forms.
Elders Meet Aspirants
Meanwhile, a subcommittee of the NDC Council of Elders has reportedly met the eight aggrieved presidential aspirants of the party over the ‘killer’ GH¢400,000 filing fee which has since been slashed to GH¢300,000.
The eight above-mentioned petitioners were accordingly present at the meeting, which is said to have been organized to enable the subcommittee, chaired by former President Jerry John Rawlings, to make proposals to them in response to their petition.
The sub-committee of the Council of Elders, which was chaired by former President Rawlings, included Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama; Aanaa Ennin; former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho; Nii Okaija Adamafio and the Secretary, Akuamoah Boateng.
The meeting, according to a statement issued on behalf of the subcommittee by Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu, is said to have been held on Thursday, December 6, 2018 in the office of Mr. Rawlings.
NDC has been in ‘turmoil’ in recent days after the party announced that it had set GH¢20,000 as nomination forms fee and GH¢400,000 for filing fee for its presidential election initially scheduled for January 19, 2019, but now postponed to January 26, 2019, after the intervention of former President Rawlings following a petition from eight out of the 13 aspirants.
According to the statement, the Council of Elders and the eight aspirants discussed among other things, the timetable for the election of a flagbearer of the party and the need to give aspirants adequate time to meet delegates, as well as to raise money from supporters and pay their filing fees; the need to consider the timetable of the National Electoral Commission of Ghana with respect to their own internal work programme, so as not to conflict with the electoral timetable of the NDC.”
“They also discussed the implications of the imminent Christmas and New Year periods on the flagbearership elections, which would slow down the ability of aspirants to campaign and meet with their supporters and party faithful; the challenging issue of the filing fees, which Council of Elders has recommended should be reduced to GH¢300,000 from GH¢400,000, but which all the aspirants felt does not properly reflect the NDC’s history, values and ethos and seems to unreasonably promote access to money as a primary criterion for political leadership,” it said.
By Melvin Tarlue