Drug barons will take advantage of EC’s high filling fee - Osei Yeboah

Independent Presidential candidate, Jacob Osei Yeboah has expressed displeasure over the new presidential filing fee of GH¢100,00 announced by the Electoral Commission.

Mr Osei Yeboah joins opposition parties including the NDC, PPP and APC who have described the fees as exorbitant and unconstitutional.

This new fee is a hundred per cent increase from the previous filing fee which stood at GH¢50,000.

Speaking to Francis Abban on the Morning Starr Tuesday, Mr Yeboah compared the fees to that of the United States, which has the world’s largest economy but charges just $500 as filing fee.

He noted that if care was not taken, a drug baron could become president in the near future, due to what he calls the dwelling of attention on monetary matters by the EC.

“I think that the issue with regards to nomination should not actually be on the filing fee. The United States with the biggest economy in the world, with the richest people, somebody like Donald Trump who was a billionaire in dollars, the filing fee is $500 an equivalent of about GH¢3000.”

“And if a country like Ghana with our shattered economy, you want a presidential filing fee and they are charging a hundred thousand which is about forty times that of the US, then we need to look at the spirit, the psychology behind this continual increase in the filing fee. I think that if we don’t take care we are destroying the spirit, the psychology and the good heart and the minds of someone to serve Ghana.”

He explained further that from the EC’s perspective, it was going to serve as a bar so as to make sure that those who are really serious would be able to qualify but at the same time, it should be a two-edged sword so that “we do not destroy the good minds that have helped develop our nation.”

Mr Yeboah went on ” in the US you pay $500 and you need 5,000 nominators that you can become president. Just to ensure that indeed you are touching base with all the states within the US, meaning that you are someone that the people believe in and that you will be able to serve the nation.

“That is what the leadership is about. It’s not about the political party that thinks they have amassed wealth for themselves and because of that no matter what. Other than that, if you don’t take care we are going to have a drug baron to become a president because we are dwelling our attention on monetary matters”.