General News of Thursday, 14 September 2006
Source: The Statesman
... It's Non-refundable!
The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the Council of Elders of the New Patriotic Party, Akenten Appiah-Menka, has given a hint as to how much those seeking to contest for the presidential nomination of the ruling party may be asked to pay before filing their candidature.
He said he sees nothing wrong with the increasing number of aspirants juggling for the Party's 2008 flagbearership, since the party believes and practices the principles of democracy.
However, the industrialist and founding member of the party suggests that such presidential aspirants must be prepared to pay 500 million cedis as the registration fee.
Already, aspirants like Capt (Rtd) Nkrabeah Effah-Dartey and Frimpong Boateng are complaining about the huge financial costs of funding such a political campaign. It has been estimated that the various aspirants (now at count 13 and counting) would each need approximately 20 billion cedis (about 2 million dollars and beyond) to be able to launch anywhere near an effective bid for the flagbearership of the NPP. While it may be argued that this could be unhealthy for our politics, the counter argument is that if you cannot raise an amount of half a billion cedis to file your nomination, then how can you convince a whole nation to vote for you as President? According to Mr Appiah-Menka, such a sizeable registeration fee demand can help to fund the party from the constituency to national level.