The Progressive Peoples Party (PPP) is appealing to Ghanaians to help it pay an amount of GHc2.8 million as filing fees for its flagbearer and its 275 parliamentary nominees for the December polls.
“…The PPP has always asked Ghanaians to help and you will recall that when we even had our rally at Nima we asked party supporters to help the party. And so if you are giving me this platform, Oliver Twist always asked for more so we are asking people to help us, we need help. There is nothing wrong with asking people to help you. They should help; why not,” Communications Director of the PPP, Paa Kow Ackon said on Eyewitness News.
The PPP had dragged the Electoral Commission to court lamenting that the GHc50,000 and GHc10,000 filing fees for both presidential and parliamentary aspirants respectively was too high.
[contextly_sidebar id=”8yuwXdwXwrzI8dhPQ2FVyRk0EVJW83DJ”]But the court on Friday dismissed the injunction suit that sought to stop the commission from collecting the money pending the hearing of the substantive case next week.
Per the ruling, the commission can now go ahead and collect the filing fees.
Speaking on Eyewitness News, Paa Kow Ackon said the party is broke hence would struggle to pay the amount.
“Everybody is broke, the whole country called Ghana is broke that is why we went to the IMF so if you ask me whether we are broke PPP, it’s not an isolation. We live in a country which is largely broke so if Ghana is broke, PPP is broke.”
EC welcomes dismissal of filing fees suit
Meanwhile, the EC has welcomed the court’s ruling.
“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 furnish its office with 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