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The submission of nominations for all applicants for the general election on December 7 begins today, Monday, October 5.
According to the EC, the five-day event will end on Friday, October 9, with the forms already available on the Commission’s website.
In an earlier statement to announce the date, Commission Chairman Jean Mensa said that while the filing fee for the presidential candidate was set at GH ¢ 100,000, parliamentary candidates are expected to pay GH ¢ 10,000 through a bank draft.
Among other things, Ms. Mensa had explained that the completed and approved forms must be submitted along with the documentation of the requirements it includes; four passport-size photographs on a red background, a legal statement, a letter of introduction from the political parties, and a tax clearance certificate to the President of the Commission.
He said that unlike in previous years, when the submission of the forms took place amid jubilation and cheers, the Commission would not entertain more than five people present during the submission process due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
This follows previous reservations on the amount quoted by the EC as a filing fee for presidential hopefuls.
Some five political parties, including the Democratic National Congress (NDC), the National People’s Convention (PNC), the Progressive People’s Party (PPP), the All Peoples Congress (APC), and the People’s Convention Party (CPP) have described the amount as outrageous.
The parties had argued that the EC was doing “a deal with the country’s democracy and selling Ghana to the highest bidder”, but the PNP and the Liberal Party of Ghana (LPG) disagreed.
During an interview on JoyNews, the undersecretary general of the ruling New Patriotic Party (PNP), Nana Obiri Boahen, had stated that a party that cannot collect said amount has no right to participate in the next elections.
“If you can’t raise ¢ 100,000, get out. Those who can mobilize will pay, ”he said while supporting the EC.
Meanwhile, for the security and integrity of the nomination process, each political party was provided a unique password to allow them to access the password-protected nomination forms that became accessible on Monday, September 14.
Ms. Jean Mensa also added that independent candidates will also receive unique passwords.
