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Former Central Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), Bernard Allotey Jacobs says if indeed the presidential aspirants of his party do not have the GHc400,000 filing fees, then they cannot lead the party.

According to him, “immediately you are elected as the flagbearer, you become the leader of the party”, querying “do we want a poor person to lead the party into the 2020 election?”

Allotey Jacobs who was contributing to a panel discussion on Adom TV’s 'Badwam' programme, Tuesday, suggested that if the rest of the flagbearer aspirants do not have the ‘killer’ filling fees, then they should rally behind former President John Mahama with ‘what they have’.

“We just want to ensure that we win the 2020 election and so I will plead with the flagbearers; we are not insulting them but they shouldn’t also insult us . . . and I disagree with President JJ Rawlings . . . my advice to the other contestants is that they should all rally behind President Mahama . . . it will be good for them to rally behind President Mahama . . . so that whatever they have they can all contribute into the party’s confers,” he added.

The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the NDC had announced that all male flagbearer aspirants of the party will pay GHc400,000 as filing fee while female flagbearer aspirants will pay GHc200,000.

Persons with disability who wish to contest the position are expected to pay GHc150, 000.

In addition, the nomination form for the NDC flagbearer slot has also been pegged at GHS20, 000, with all aspirants having 10 days to officially file.

The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Hon Alban S.K Bagbin and other flagbearer aspirants of the NDC; except former President John Mahama have teamed up to fight the decision by the party to charge a whopping GHc 400,000 as filing fees.

They have petitioned the party's Council of Elders to impress on the National Executives to reduce the fee.

Meanwhile, the founder of the party, former President Jerry John Rawlings has bemoaned the high amount of money being charged.

“I doubt if anyone of us who has served with integrity, relying on our salaries can raise these filing fees unless we engaged in some unethical behaviour while in office; unless we abused or misused our positions during our tenure,” he said.