As other aspirants are fighting the National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) hierarchy over the cost of nomination forms and filing fees for the presidential primaries, forms have been picked up and paid for on behalf of former President John Mahama.
The forms were picked up by a delegation from the Asawase Constituency, which earlier pledged to pay for the GHc 20,000 nomination form after the former President visited the area.
The former MCE of Asokore Mampong, Alhaji Nurudeen Hamid, who led the delegation, told Citi News political actors within the constituency contributed the GHc20,000.
He said the community owed former President Mahama a debt of gratitude for the development he brought to the area.
“Today when you go to the Ashanti Region, Asawase is the heartbeat of the NDC in the Ashanti Region… He has projected the image of Asawase and we are the direct beneficiaries so if today he is putting himself up for contest because of what we benefited from him, we felt that this is the time to pay back.”
Once again, such fundraising attempts for Mr. Mahama are tight-lipped on the source of donations.
“I will not be able to tell you how much everybody contributed until I seek their permission because it is not everybody who wants his name out in the media,” Alhaji Nurudeen said.
Boycott by other aspirants
This comes as some aggrieved aspirants in the NDC flagbearer race have boycotted the processes for the presidential primaries claiming the processes are unlawful.
In a petition, they accused some members of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) of bias and said the could not be trusted to ensure a free process.
Alban Bagbin, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Sylvester Mensah, Stephen Atubiga, Nurideen Iddrissu, Goosie Tanoh, Kojo Bonsu, Elikplim Agbemava and Joshua Alabi, are the aspirants that are signatories to the petition to the Council.
“In these circumstances, we do not believe that the NEC can be trusted to administer the Primaries fairly. We have resolved not to proceed under the proposed unlawful Guidelines. Accordingly, none of us will pick up nomination forms or otherwise comply with the unlawful Guidelines until our petition is heard and the issues set out are fully resolved,” the petition said.
On the matter of the filing fees for candidates, they said the figure is “unreasonable”.
In the petition, the nine aspirants proposed that fees for collection of forms be GHS 5,000 whiles the filing fees be GHS100,000.
The aggrieved aspirants also feel the filing fees and other guidelines for the primaries “appear to have been designed to favour of that same aspirant,” who is implied to be Mr. Mahama.
Support for Mahama
In contrast, Mr. Mahama is having a relatively stress free march to the primaries.
Some 96 National Democratic Congress legislators have purportedly raised over GHc 600,000 for Mr. Mahama’s bid to become the NDC flagbearer, according to the Kumbungu MP, Ras Mubarak.
“Initially, we thought we would just raise GHc420,00 cedis but very interestingly, a lot of support in terms of raising the funds has come from friends, well-wishers and members of the party. From the last count we’ve raised a little over GHc 600,000,” he told citinewsroom.com.
Scores of supporters also lined-up at Mr. Mahama’s office at Captain Hooks in Cantonments to donate towards his campaign.
As at midday on Monday, about GHc 683 had been realized from 124 supporters, who contributed between GHc1 to GHc10.
Mr. Mahama’s office has also confirmed that it has received up to GHc1000 cedis from 500 supporters via the campaign’s mobile money number since it was announced on Monday morning.
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