‘It’s too high’ - Ghanaians criticise GH¢100,000 presidential filing fee

A section of the Ghanaian public has taken to social media to criticise the fee set by the Electoral Commission (EC) as the filing fee for the 2020 presidential candidates.

The EC on Monday, September 14, 2020, opened nominations for the 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections.

The nominations are to be filed from Monday, October 5, 2020, to Friday, October 9, 2020.

Presidential aspirants are expected to pay GH¢100,000 as filing fee, while the parliamentary candidates will have to part away with GH¢10,000 to file for nominations.

Since the announcement, some political commentators and governance think tanks have kicked against the fee set by the EC ahead of the December 7, 2020 polls.

The Center for Democratic Development Ghana (CDD-Ghana), has said the filing fee for the presidential candidates for the next election was “outrageous”.

Popular legal practitioner, Prof Kwaku Asare (Kwaku Azar) has said the fee set by the EC was illegal and discriminatory.



GhanaWeb has sampled the views of some social media users on the filing fee and found that the majority of the comments were critical.

“The EC has taken an agenda to exclude many parties from taking part of the electoral race this 2020. Presidential candidates filing fee is ghc100,000.00 and the parliamentary filing fee is ghc50000. Eiiii, this is a revenue generation institution,” one Twitter users said.

In 2016, the EC charged GH¢50,000 as filing fees for presidential candidates and GH¢10,000 for parliamentary aspirants.

Follow the reactions of some Ghanaians on Facebook and Twitter below.

ELECTION 2020 -THE FILING FEE Hv folks heard e justification given by e EC for e hike in e filing fee from GHC50,000 in 2016 to GHC100,000 in 2020? Well, they said GHC50000 in 2016 is almost e same as GHC100,000 today in DOLLAR term THAT IS HOW BAD THE ECONOMY IS Over to u nadaa

— Dave (@Dave06573662) September 15, 2020

Ah EC has increased filing fee for presidential candidates to elect 100k? Why them no go do Agyapa if them come power?

— kizzle (@AbeikuLytle) September 15, 2020

Akua Donkor said she is willing and ready to pay the filing fee of 100,000 cedis (1 billion old cedis) set by the EC for presidential candidates. Heerh this woman for dash me the money k3k3.

— S E E D O R F ? (@kwaku291) September 14, 2020

*Contrary to the stance of the NPP 4 years ago, Obirir Boahen, said in an interview on GhOne, that the GhC 100,000 being set as the filing fee by the EC, is okayany party that can't afford isn't a serious party, When you have access to stolen excavator cash, anything goes*

— slightly used virgin? (@slytlyusevirgin) September 14, 2020

The EC has taken an agenda to exclude many parties from taking part of the electoral race this 2020. Presidential candidates filing fee is ghc100,000.00 and the parliamentary filing fee is ghc50000. Eiiii, this is a revenue generation institution.

— Issah Musah Aziba (@musahaziba) September 14, 2020

@benkoku is there a law for the EC when they coming up with the filing fee for presidential and parliamentary seats? @Citi973 #CitiCBS

— ahy ef oh key ???????? (@Ifok_Kofi) September 15, 2020