EC rejects two in Upper West

The Upper West Regional office of the Electoral Commission (EC) has rejected the candidacy of two parliamentary aspirants after both failed to submit the required filing fees by the close of the deadline.

Mr Ali Abdul Rahim, who aspired to enter Parliament as an independent candidate for the Wa Central Constituency, and Mr Maxwell Mane who sought to contest the Jirapa Constituency seat on the ticket of Independent People’s Party (IPP) filed the nomination documents but failed to submit the banker’s draft of the filing fees to the respective EC offices.

The Regional Chairman of the EC in Upper West, Mr Azu Bosco Anyigre, said the two failed to comply with the directive of submitting GH¢10,000 as the accompanying filing fee for the parliamentary contests.

The two, according to the EC official, were the only rejected nominations out of 53 persons who submitted forms to contest the parliamentary elections across the 11 constituencies in the Upper West Region.

The EC’s regional chairman said both Mr Abdul Rahim and Mr Mane never returned to honour the monetary aspect of the filing process although they submitted their respective nomination forms in time to beat the deadline.

Only the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP) are fielding candidates for all 11 seats – 10 of which are currently in the hands of the NDC, with the 11th seat belonging to an independent Member of Parliament who emerged from the NDC stock.