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(Special for CAFS) Ghana's electoral commission refuses to cut filing fees

Xinhua, September 28, 2016 Adjust font size:

Ghana's Electoral Commission (EC) has said it would not reduce filing fees it fixed for presidential and parliamentary candidates contesting this year's general election.

So far, 16 political parties and nine independent aspirants have picked nomination forms to contest the election scheduled for December 7, the state-run daily The Ghanaian Times reported Monday.

The EC has asked each presidential candidate to pay a filing fee of 50,000 Ghana Cedis (about 12,560 U.S. dollars) and each parliamentary candidate to pay 10,000 Ghana Cedis (about 2,512 U.S. dollars).

Eric Dzakpasu, EC's Head of Communications, told The Ghanaian Times Monday the commission was resolute in its decision to maintain the filing fee.

"There is no indication that the EC would reduce the filing fee. If only one candidate pays the fee, he/she would go unopposed," he emphasized.

The daily indicated that the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), main opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP), Progressive People's Party (PPP) and Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) had expressed their readiness to pay the fees by the deadline on Friday, September 30.

The Director of Communications of the NDC, James Asante, told The Ghanaian Times in an interview that the Functional Executive Committee (FEC) of the party would take a decision on the issue Tuesday, three days away from the deadline.

"The FEC will take a decision on the filing fees at its meeting today after briefing on the issue by the NDC's representative at the Inter Party Advisory Committee of the Commission," he said.

Nana Akomea, the Director of Communications of the NPP, also asserted the party would pay the filing fees to enable it to contest the election. Endit