Nine of the aspirants seeking to lead the National Democratic Congress in the 2020 elections have written to the Council of Elders of the party to intervene in the hefty GHC400,00 being charged as filing fee by the party executives.

The aspirants including Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah and Alban Bagbin say the amount is unreasonable blaming the party’s general secretary Johnson Asiedu Nketia of skewing the contest in favour of an individual in the race.

Mr. Asiedu Nketia is on record to have declared his support for the candidature of former President John Mahama in the race.

The petition to the Elders said the amount does not reflect the social democratic ideals of the party and must be reviewed.

Below are portions of the petition

IMPOSITION OF UNREASONABLE FILING FEES

“Section 9 of the proposed Guidelines imposes the following filing fees on aspirants:

a. 400,000.00 Cedis for male aspirants; b. 200,000.00 Cedis for female aspirants; and c. 150.000.00 Cedis for Persons with Disabilities

“We oppose these fees on the grounds that they call the Party’s fundamental commitment to social democracy into question. Their mere publication has brought the Party into negative controversy. As a social democratic Party NDC must always be committed to breaking down class and social barriers and building a more inclusive politics and society. Our mission is to empower those currently marginalised by our elitist social institutions and bring them into public life in ways that strengthen productivity and solidarity, thereby increasing wealth for all.

“The imposition by NEC of filing fees that would exclude the vast majority of Party members from offering themselves for office is unacceptable to us and (from the public outrage exhibited over the last 24 hours) to Party activists and citizens in general. As regards precedent we observe that these fees are entirely out of line with the Party’s own historical practice. For example,in the NEC elections held just 2 weeks ago the fees for contestants for the position of chairman were GHS10,000.00 and that of General Secretary, GHS8,000.00. We note further that in 2012 and 2016 filing fees for the Presidential Primaries were pegged at GHS60,000 and GHS100,000.00 respectively”