The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of the opposition National Democratic Congress [NDC], Joseph Ade Coker, has said the nine aggrieved presidential hopefuls of the party refused to support all of the NDC’s internal activities that have taken place so far, when they were asked to assist.
Speaking on the Breakfast Daily Show on Citi TV, Mr. Ade Coker, who is part of the NDC’s National Executive Committee, NEC, said, “I feel sorry for those aspirants. This is a party that has had branch, constituency, regional and national elections, but none of them contributed even a dime. When the Council of Elders met them and asked each of them to contribute to the party, they refused. They were called to the Council of Elders meeting and asked to contribute about GhC50,000, none of them did. They saw the party going through all the processes. In all these processes, it was the GhC1.00 contributions from the branch leaders that was used to conduct the branch elections.”
His comments follow a petition by Alban Bagbin, Spio Garbrah and seven other aspirants to the party’s Council of Elders over the GhC20,000 for nomination forms and GhC400,000 for filing fees.
It is unclear whether Mr. Ade Coker’s explanation could be the reason the party has raised the filling fee in such a manner that most of them are complaining about.
Political parties per Ghana’s laws, are to finance their activities through payment of dues by members and voluntary donations.
The other petitioners are Joshua Alabi, Sylvester Mensah, Stephen Atubiga, Nurideen Iddrisu, Goosie Tanoh, Kojo Bonsu and Elikplim Agbemava.
“I’m a member of the planning committee. We asked the constituency chairmen to fund the transportation of their delegates to the Trade Fair Centre. Half of that money has not been paid to them. The presidential aspirants never came to the NEC meetings to contribute anything. They don’t expect me to contribute for an election to be run for them,” Ade Coker also said on the Breakfast Daily.
“NEC met and looked at the cost of running the elections for the presidential aspirants and it is in the region of almost GhC8 million. The EC alone, is charging GhC3000 per constituency. Who will pay for all this? The party is supposed to raise funds through dues and we have been doing this. The cost of organizing these events is very high, so we are asking the aspirants to contribute their quota. If they want to lead the party, they should have the network.”
The aspirants proposed that fees for collection of forms be reduced to GHS 5,000, whiles the filing fees should be pegged at GHS100,000. They are also asking for an endorsement period of 6 weeks; and the polling date shifted back to the first week of March 2019.
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Citifmonline
