Sylvester Mensah
National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer aspirant, Sylvester Mensah, has indicated he and fellow aggrieved aspirants will still push for a more favourable filing fee than the GHc 300,000, from the initial figure of GHc 400,000.
The reduction followed a proposal from the NDC’s Council of Elders, after nine of the aspirants had petitioned over the matter.
The petitioners will be meeting the Council of Elders later today, Thursday.
Speaking on Citi TV’s The Point of View, Mr. Mensah welcomed the reduction as proof of the NDC’s democratic credentials.
“I have a lot of confidence in the party. I have a lot of confidence in our Council of Elders and I am not surprised at all that the council has convened this meeting to discuss the challenge. We have processes for redress in our party and our system works.”
But he insisted that the processes have not ended because the meeting later today could provide an avenue for more compromise.
“We’ll all have input into the discussions… It is not a meeting where we are going to be told take this or leave it. It is going to be an engagement. We are going to discuss.”
“Perhaps the discussion that ensued today would be reviewed and our input will be sought,” he added.
All the aspirants, aside from former President John Mahama, petitioned the party’s Council of Elders over the filing fees and other matters of concern.
In the petition, the nine aspirants proposed that fees for collection of forms be GHS 5,000 whiles the filing fees be GHS100,000.
Campaign period
Mr. Mensah also maintained that the period leading up to the presidential primary is too short.
“Operating the whole process of picking of nominations and elections in 45 days is woefully inadequate. If you add one week and shift it to about 52 days. It is woefully inadequate… One would have expected that a minimum of six weeks would be provided for aspirants to conclude their campaign.”
The new date for the primaries is now Saturday 26th January 2019.
This was one of the changes the Functional Executive Committee (FEC) acting on behalf of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and upon advice from the NDC’s Council of Elders made.
-Citifmonline