Ayariga endorses GHC50,000 filing fees; says it’s small

The All People’s Congress (APC) has welcomed the Electoral Commission’s astronomical increment of filing fees for this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

The Commission has since Thursday come under criticism from the public and almost all the political parties for its decision to up the fees for presidential candidates from GHC10,000 to GHC50,000. The figure is 500 per cent increment.

Parliamentary candidates are also to pay GHC10,000 as against the previous GHC1,000. This represents a 1,000 per cent increment.

While the parties, including the National Democratic Congress and the New Patriotic Party are pushing for a downward review of the fees, the APC says the Commission should have pegged the figure higher.

“The Electoral Commission has done well with such decision but we honestly think that the Presidential filing fee should have been GHC120, 000,” a statement signed by the General Secretary, Razak Kojo Opoku said.

APC argued, “must be a relatively high standard” for anyone wishing to become the president of Ghana to comply with.

“Dr. Hassan Ayariga gladly accept to pay the GHS 50,000 filing fee for our Presidential Candidate to contest the 7th December 2016 general election,” the party said.

The party said it believes in the idea of quality and realistic parliamentary candidates and not quantity.