Filing fees increment: 'Most unfunny joke ever' – CPP reacts to EC's justification

The Convention Peoples Party has described as unfunny, the justification being given by the Electoral Commission as its decision to increase filing fees for presidential candidates seeking to contest in the 2020 general elections.

According to the Youth Organiser of the CPP, Kofi Osei, the EC citing the value of the cedi to defend the increase from GHC50,000 to GHC100,000 for presidential candidates as well as the GHC50,000 being demanded of parliamentary candidates is an unfunny joke unheard of.

“This is the most unfunny joke I’ve ever heard. The Electoral Commission made us understand that because they want to boost the local economy, they were doing a lot of their printing in Ghana. So they mean to tell us that the legal tender in Ghana has changed from cedi to dollar, is that what Dr Bossman Asare is saying,” he questioned in an interview on Okay FM monitored by GhanaWeb on Tuesday, September 15, 2020.

The CPP National Youth Organiser said his party as a result of the EC decision will embark on a massive demonstration to protest what they see to be the monetization of Ghana’s electoral system by the main body mandated to prevent the same.

“We will stage a big demonstration against them because the Electoral Commission wants to rewrite our democracy which allows multi party-system and make it a dual system for only the NPP and the NDC who have been in power and have been able to give their people jobs to make money, to be the only people to take up political leadership roles,” he stated.

A Deputy Commissioner of the EC, DR Eric Bossman Asare in defense of the commission’s decision has said, “in each particular year, it is important you look at the value of GHS50,000 in 2016, then compare it to GHS50,000 in 2020 then you will notice that the Commission has not increased it much. And even when you look at the [filing fee for] parliamentary [aspirants], the GHS10,000, you will realise that the Commission has reduced the price because we all know that GHS10,000 in 2016, is not the same as GHS10,000 in 2020. The Commission is doing this to promote multiparty democracy.”

However, the commission’s decision to increase the fees has courted the disagreement of the opposition political parties, whiles the ruling New Patriotic Party have said they don’t have any problem with the amount being charged.