The Electoral Commission has welcomed the dismissal of an injunction suit brought before an Accra High court by the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), on filing fees for presidential and parliamentary nominees in this year’s election.
The commission had earlier suspended the acceptance of the fees following the case.
The PPP had protested the collection of the amount of GHc50, 000 and GHc10,000 for both presidential and parliamentary nominees claiming it was arbitrary.
[contextly_sidebar id=”4DByXVH4Y6ACYzcimEEOngvJot5lu91D”]The PPP told the court that it does not have enough money to pay the fees of its presidential candidate, and the 275 parliamentary candidates across the country, which will amount to almost Ghc2.8 million.
However the court went ahead to dismiss the injunction suit against the commission; thereby giving the Electoral Commission the go-ahead to collect the fees.
Details of the ruling are to be made known on Monday October 11, whereas the substantive case challenging the legality of the process of setting the fees, is to be heard on Tuesday. Another contempt suit the party filed against the EC Chair for collecting the banker’s draft for their presidential nominee during the filing of nominations is also pending.
Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, Head of Communications at the EC, Eric Dzakpasu, said they would commence the nomination processes on Monday.
“It’s a very welcoming news. We had to put on hold the nomination process until such time that the court determined this case so that we can receive the nomination fees before we can accept the nominations of the various candidates. So with this ruling by the court, it is good news because we are going to resume the nomination process and hopefully early next week we will finish up and come up with the list of candidates who will officially stand for this year’s election,” he said.
Submit your filing fees on Monday
Meanwhile the EC has directed aspirants for this year’s election to pay their filing fees by Monday, October 10, 2016.
“All nominated candidates for the 2016 Presidential and Parliamentary elections are hereby advised to submit the banker’s draft in respect of their filing fees to the Electoral Commission not later than 12:00 noon on Monday October 10, 2016,” a statement from the EC stated.
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By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin