Cape Coast, March 9, GNA - Mr Dan Botwe, one of the candidates seeking to be elected as the New Patriotic Party's presidential candidate for election 2008, has expressed concern over a proposal that the party's filing fee should be 500 million cedis.

He said even though the amount suggested could help the party to raise revenue for its electoral campaigns, it was important not to send signals that the party was for sale to only the rich. Mr Botwe was speaking to journalists in Cape Coast after a tour of the region's 19 constituencies.

He said it was too early for anyone to say that 500 million cedis was the amount decided on by the party and that the decision on the amount might be taken when it was left with about three months for the party to go to congress.

On the outcome of his tour, he said it was successful in the sense that he was given warm reception by the executives of all the constituencies he visited.

Mr Botwe said there was the need to assist President John Agyekum Kufuor to implement the party's manifesto to enable him to bequeath a befitting legacy to the nation.

Mr Botwe said it was only when President Kufuor bequeathed a befitting legacy to the nation that anybody who was elected by the party's delegates to become its flag bearer would win the 2008 general elections massively.

On the issue of age, Mr Botwe said it should not be a dominant factor in determining who becomes the flagbearer because Dr Kwame Nkrumah was 42 years old when he became the Prime Minister in 1951 and at Ghana's Independence in 1957 he was 48. "I am now 51 years old".

He said in 1998 when the party went to congress to elect its flag bearer, Mr J. H. Mensah was 10 years older than President Kufuor but the delegates ignored their age difference and voted for Mr Kufuor. Mr Botwe said what must be of concern to all was what one could do for the party and the nation at large.