PPP to file contempt suit against EC

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has said it will file a contempt case against the Electoral Commission (EC) of Ghana on Monday for accepting the filing fee of the party.

The PPP has filed a suit against the EC in connection with the GHS50,000 filing fee for presidential nominees, leading to an injunction placed on some aspects of the filing process.

The PPP is seeking a declaration that Regulation 45 of C.I. 94 is discriminatory, arbitrary, capricious, and unreasonable. “That the entire C.I. 94 does not contain the appropriate relevant provisions that meet the intendment of Article 296 of the 1992 Constitution.”

The other reliefs sought include: “A declaration that the proper instrument within the meaning of the relevant laws of the Republic of Ghana, in charging a deposit or fees for conducting a presidential or parliamentary election, by the Electoral Commission, is a statutory instrument and not constitutional instrument. An order directed at the defendants to desist from collecting and or receiving the said deposit or fees for the conduct of the 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections until the appropriate statutory instruments have been passed in accordance with appropriate legal rights.”

But the PPP, while submitting the nomination forms for its presidential nominee, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom on Friday, 30 September, attached a banker’s draft of GHS50,000 to the forms, which the EC accepted.

The EC had earlier rejected the fees of other presidential nominees the previous day.

PPP Policy Advisor, Kofi Asamoah Siaw, told Class91.3FM’s Paa Kwesi Parker-Wilson that the action of the EC was in contempt of the court’s directive and so the party will proceed to court to file a contempt suit against the election management body on Monday October 3.

“We cannot on our own remove some of the requirements. So we were expecting her to reject the fees. We are filing a contempt case on Monday [October 3],” he said.

Mr Asamoah Siaw explained that according to the electoral laws, the requirements for filing included “the quadruplicate forms, picture, filing fee and statutory declarations as well as tax declaration and asset declaration forms”.

He indicated that they wanted to submit the required items when they got to the EC's office but the EC instructed them to submit “everything that they had”. “She took everything and so she has to answer why she took the money. She is in contempt of court, or the commission is, and we will take appropriate measures to resolve the issue,” he added.

He further explained that the EC did not accept the fees of the other presidential aspirants “except they want to say that they did backroom acceptance and when the cameras were there, they rejected it”, questioning: “So why do you accept that of the PPP when you rejected that of others?”