PPP moves to restrain EC over fees
The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) yesterday filed an interlocutory injunction at the High Court seeking to prevent the Electoral Commission (EC) from collecting filing fees from presidential and parliamentary aspirants in this year’s general election.
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The PPP wants the court to prohibit the EC from collecting the fees until the determination of a suit it has filed challenging the legality of the electoral body collecting GH¢50,000 and GH¢10,000 from presidential and parliamentary aspirants, respectively.
In its motion for interlocutory injunction, the PPP is praying the court for an order to restrain the EC, “their respective agents, assigns, privies, servants or workmen from collecting or receiving the filing fees for the conduct of the 2016 elections, pending the final determination of the substantive matter”.
Filing fees
The EC, on September 8, 2016, announced the increase in the filing fee for presidential candidates from GH¢5,000 in 2012 to GH¢50,000 and that of parliamentary candidates from GH¢1,000 in 2012 to GH¢10,000 in this year’s elections.
Per the directive issued by the electoral body, filing fees are deposits which will be confiscated should a presidential candidate fail to secure 25 per cent of the presidential votes and a parliamentary candidate also fails to secure 12.5 per cent of votes in a constituency.
The deadline for all persons who aspire to contest this year’s elections to file their nominations forms, which are supposed to be accompanied by the filing fees, is tomorrow, September 30, 2016.
Four political parties, namely, the People’s National Convention (PNC), the Convention People’s Party (CPP), the National Democratic Party (NDP) and the PPP, vehemently criticised the increment.
EC served or not?
The Policy Advisor of the PPP informed the Daily Graphic that the lawyer for the EC, Mr Thaddeus Sory, had been served with a copy of the motion for the interlocutory injunction.
But the Head of Communications of the EC, Mr Eric Dzakpasu, told the Daily Graphic that the commission was yet to be notified of the said injunction.
“Officially, nobody has brought anything of this nature to my notice that an injunction has been filed on the commission,’’ he said. Legal action
The PPP instituted a legal action against the EC for fixing the filling fees for presidential and parliamentary candidates in this year’s general election at GH¢50,000 and GH¢10,000, respectively.
Joined to the suit as second defendant is the Attorney-General (A-G).
A writ of summons filed at the Accra High Court said the PPP described the approved fees by the EC as “discriminatory, arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable’’.
The PPP is seeking a declaration that the proper instrument that the EC could employ to charge fees for presidential or parliamentary elections is a statutory instrument and not a constitutional instrument.
It also wants an order from the court to bar the EC from collecting the filing fees until the “appropriate statutory instruments have been passed in accordance with the appropriate legal regime’’.
Another relief sought by the party is a declaration that the “entire C.I. 94 does not contain the appropriate provisions and thus is not in accordance with Article 296 of the 1992 Constitution”.
It is further seeking the court to declare Regulation 45 of C.I. 94 as “discriminatory”, “arbitrary”, “capricious” and “unreasonable”.
Presidential aspirants
So far, 25 people have picked presidential nomination forms to become presidential candidates of political parties or independent candidates.
The parties which have picked nomination forms for their presidential aspirants so far are the National Democratic Congress (NDC), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the PPP, the NDP, the United Development System Party (UDSP), the PNC and the United Love Party (ULP).
Others are the Independent People’s Party (IPP), the United Progressive Party (UPP), the Ghana Freedom Party (GFP), the United Front Party (UFP), the Democratic People’s Party (DPP), the APC, the Great Consolidated Popular Party (GCPP) and the Reform Patriotic Democrats (RPD).
The independent candidates are Mr Jacob Osei-Yeboah, Mr Kwaku Antwi Owusu, Mr Lawrence Yamil Nketia, Mr Kwame Asiedu Walker, Chief Dr Yaw Kumi, John Alex Hamah and Major Ibrahim Rida (retd).
Two additional independent candidates picked the forms but their identities are not known by the public.
