The Electoral Commission on Monday rejected a cash amount presented to it by the Independent People’s Party (IPP) as filing fees for the party’s parliamentary nominees.
Kofi Akpaloo, flagbearer of the party presented his GHc50,000 filing fee in banker’s draft; but gave the EC a cash amount of GHc10,000 each for his parliamentary nominees in a ‘Ghana-must-go’ bag.
Citi News’ Sixtus Dong Ullo reported from the headquarters of the EC that “the Commission turned down the money and instructed that the cash be converted into a banker’s draft and submitted before the midday deadline.”
“The IPP as of the close of nominations was however not able to submit the filing fees for its parliamentary nominees,” he added.
Submit filing fees by midday
All the parties were supposed to submit their filing fees by midday today [Monday], after an Accra High court dismissed an injunction suit filed by the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) in protest against the fees.
The PPP had argued that, the GHc50, 000 and GHc10, 000 filing fees for both presidential and parliamentary hopefuls was too high.
CPP filing fee wahala
The Convention People’s Party (CPP) also delayed with the submission of its banker’s draft.
Sixtus reported that, the CPP led by its National Chairman, Prof. Edumund Delle, told the Commission that they were still processing the banker’s draft to be forwarded to them [EC] before the deadline.
“National Chairman of the CPP, Prof. Delle, showed up at the Commission, two minutes before deadline, to explain that their banker’s drafts for both presidential and parliamentary nominees were still being processed, and asked for more time. The Commission however says it will retire to decide on the request. This could effectively derail the party’s chances to contest the December polls,” Dong Ullo said.
14 parties submit filing fees
A total of 12 political parties and two independent candidates were able to submit filing fees for their presidential and parliamentary nominees to the EC before the 12:00pm deadline today.
–
By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin