Some Civil Society Organisations (CSO) are calling on the Jean Mensa Electoral Commission (EC) to tell Ghanaians what ill it intends to cure by increasing the filing fee for this year’s presidential nomination forms.
The directive, this week, by the EC that all aspirants to the presidency should each pay GH¢100,000, has been met with mixed reactions.
On Tuesday evening, The Big Agenda on Adom TV put the issue out for analysis.
Speaking for CDD-Ghana, Research Analyst and team leader for elections, Rhoda Osei-Afful asserted that access to power should not be sold to anyone that is why “in our laws, there’s provision for the number of registered members.”
The Ghana Integrity Initiative, adding its weight to the resistance, insisted that before such fees can be tolerated, monies contributed by individuals and companies to support elections must be strictly scrutinised and controlled.
According to the CSOs, there has been a notion created that to become a president one must be filthy rich, and the exorbitant filing fee seems to give grounds to that claim.