The Managing Director of State Transport Company (STC), Nana Akomea, says the country’s elections management body, the Electoral Commission (EC), could have consulted political parties before arriving at the GH₵100,000 filing fee for presidential candidates.
The Commission at its ‘Let The Citizen Know’ press conference in the capital, Accra on Monday, September 14, 2020, said presidential and parliamentary candidates are required to pay GH₵100,000 and GH₵10,000 respectively as filing fees ahead of the 7th December general elections.
“The presidential candidate will be required to deposit an amount of GH₵100,000 in a form of a Bankers Draft to the Commission. Parliamentary candidates will be required to deposit GH₵10,000 in a form of a Bankers draft as well. We wish all candidates for both presidential and parliamentary elections well, we trust that the nomination process will be efficient, seamless and orderly”, said the EC chairperson, Jean Mensa.
The declaration, however, seems to have triggered controversies in the political space. Whiles some say the amount is okay, other political actors believe the filing fee for the presidential candidates is rather too high.
But reacting to this on Peace FM’s flagship morning show – Kokrokoo, monitored by Ghana Guardian, the former Okaikwei South MP, said although previous administrations of the EC have always declared the filing fees without consulting the parties, the current administration headed by Madam Jean Mensa could have acted differently.
“I believe the Electoral Commission could have first had an engagement with the political parties in the country with regards to the filing fees rather than what it did”, Nana Akomeah’s position stated.
According to him, such acts do not promote democracy. Mr. Akomeah said if the EC had engaged the political parties on the amount earlier before it came to the public domain, it would have changed the narrative where some political parties are objecting to the new fees.
Nana Akomea, however, disclosed that the filing fee is to sieve serious candidates from the unserious ones.
