The Convention People’s Party (CPP) has kicked against the GHc 50,000 Presidential nominees are expected to pay as filing fees for their nomination forms to contest in 2016 elections in December.
The Campaign Strategist of the party, Kwabena Kabila Bomfeh views the fees announced by the Electoral Commission (EC) to be excessive and said to Citi News, “you do not need to have financial arm or muscle to contribute your quota to nation building.”
[contextly_sidebar id=”zMHEE8MT4xgpOGsvtloH8Z9ZntKBkTtR”]In view of this, Mr. Bomfeh said his party will protest against these “outrageous” fees and called on Ghanaians to do same.
“Young people who are beginning life and want to contribute by way of offering themselves in terms of leadership when they have the skill, the talents, the zeal and the capacity to lead, you are saying that if they don’t have the financial muscle, they should go hang? No! Our Electoral Commission cannot do that. We will continue protesting until the right thing is done.”
“I am calling on Ghanaians in their millions, to stand against these outrageous figures that the Electoral Commission is demanding as filling fees for presidential and parliamentary nominees,” he added.
EC will consider requests for downward review
The Commission has however said it will consider a request made by some of the political parties for the filing fees to be reviewed downward.
The hike in the filing fee was revealed on Thursday at an Inter-Party Advisory Commission (IPAC) meeting where the Electoral Commission also pegged the filing fee for parliamentary candidates at GHc10,000.
This is a massive jump from the filing fee for parliamentary candidates during the 2012 elections which was GHc1,000 whilst presidential candidates paid GHc10,000 the same year.
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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana