The Director of Operations for the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), Nana Ofori Owusu, has stated that the party had no intention of tricking the Electoral Commission, when it presented its filing fee to the election management body, despite its own lawsuit against the fee.
He said this on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue.
According to Nana Owusu, who’s also the PPP parliamentary candidate for Efutu Constituency, by presenting their nomination forms with the filing fees, the PPP was only doing what was required by law.
“We know the tricks that exist, we didn’t trick the EC. The law states that we bring those things. They returned the filing fees of all the parties that came after us. What was the intent? I cannot take a decision and take my independent decision not to take what is required,” he stated.
He also said, “If the EC didn’t return the filing fee of the PPP, but returned that of other parties, why is it saying that it thought the case had been withdrawn from court. Where in this world can anyone accept this explanation? The PPP isn’t broke, our issue is with the process under which the fee was set.”
On September 19, the PPP filed a suit at the High Court seeking an interlocutory injunction to prevent the EC from receiving the nominations in protest against the filing fees for presidential and parliamentary aspirants.
When some of the aspirants went to the offices of the Commission on Thursday (September 29), the EC said that it would not accept the fees until the court rules on the substantive matter.
However, when the PPP’s chairman, Nii Allotey Brew Hammond, presented the filing fee of the party’s flagbearer, Dr. Papa Kwesi Nduom, the EC Chairperson accepted it and refused to return it.
Justifying her decision to accept the fee, the EC chairperson, Charlotte Osei, said, “I thought they had withdrawn the case. That was the impression.”
PPP could face contempt over filing fee submission – Ndebugri
The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) risks being cited for contempt of court for presenting its filing fee to the Electoral Commission (EC), despite being the very entity to place an injunction on the process, a private legal practitioner, John Ndebugri has said.
It remains to be seen in court, what the impact of today’s incident, will have on the substantive case in court.
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By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com/Ghana