Governance think tank, Center for Democratic Development Ghana (CDD-Ghana), has said the filing fee for presidential aspirants for the December polls announced on Monday, September 14, 2020, by the Electoral Commission (EC) is outrageous.
“Come to think of it, every activity in the electoral process had been budgeted for, so why the need to put pressure on the aspirants?" Senior Programs Officer at CDD-Ghana, Nana Kwabena Aborampah Mensah, told Citi News.
"We are causing further strain on the public purse because the country already allocates huge sums of money for the conduct of elections, then there is the issue of parties and people winning elections and having to recoup the monies they invested,” Mr Mensah was quoted to have said.
His comments on Tuesday, September 15, 2020, follow the opening of nominations for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections on Monday.
The nominations are to be filed from Monday, October 5, 2020, to Friday, October 9, 2020.
Presidential aspirants are expected to pay GH¢100,000 as the filing fee and GH¢10,000 for parliamentary candidates.
In 2016, the EC charged GH¢50,000 as filing fees for presidential candidates and GH¢10,000 for parliamentary aspirants.
But Mr. Mensah has raised concerns, stressing that corruption in Ghana is attributable to the expenses aspirants of public offices incur to win elections.
“We [CDD-Ghana] got alarmed after research into the cost of politics in Ghana. We found out that parliamentary candidates that seek political power spend about USD 85,000 on just the contest. That excludes the filing fee, campaigning, and other expenses.
“This is really outrageous and should be looked at. This has implications for governance. Talk of corruption, mismanagement and what have you, because the people need to recoup the monies they invest,” he stressed.
Mensah has urged to EC to render annual accounts of its expenses for transparency.
CDD-Ghana is a governance think tank