Main opposition leader, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo and other three parties today filed their presidential nomination form – but the Electoral Commission has rejected the 50, 000 Ghana cedis filing fees of the aspirants.
This was due to an interlocutory injunction filed by the Progressive People’s Party [PPP] against the EC.
NPP’s Nana Akufo-Addo was first at the EC’s office to file his nomination – he was followed by United Progressive Party’s Akwasi Addai Odike then United Front Party’s Agyanim Boateng and Hassan Ayariga of the APC.
The EC accepted their respective forms for the Presidency race ahead of the December 7 elections.
The EC’s decision to reject the filing fee comes after the PPP on Wednesday initiated legal processes at the Accra High Court to restrain Ghana’s Electoral Commission from going ahead to receive nomination fees from aspirants seeking to contest this year’s general elections.
The PPP which has sued the Commission over the fees, filed an interlocutory injunction application to stop the EC from going ahead to receive the said fees together with the nomination forms from Thursday.
Per a Supreme Court decision, an application for interlocutory injunction technically applies as an injunction, hence the EC cannot go ahead to collect the filing fees from today.
The amount, which was announced by the EC on September 8 at an Inter Party Advisory Committee, has been described by many political parties as outrageous and illegal, triggering the lawsuit by the PPP a week ago.
The decision by the NPP to also pay for all of its 275 parliamentary candidates was also rejected by the Electoral Commission due to the above mentioned reasons.
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