PPP defend paying filing fees to EC

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has said it proceeded with the submission its GHC 50,000 filing fee for the party’s Presidential candidate because it never heard in the news that the Electoral Commission (EC) had declined to accept the filing fee of other Flag bearers, due to an interlocutory injunction filed on the process.

The EC Thursday September 29, refused to accept the filing fees of Presidential aspirants such as NPP’s Nana Akufo Addo, NDC’s John Mahama and NDP’s Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings, a decision which it said was to respect an interlocutory injunction filed on the process by the PPP.

The PPP issued a writ at the High Court on Wednesday, September 28, arguing the EC had no legal basis to demand a deposit of ¢50,000 from Presidential candidates and ¢10,000 from Parliamentary candidates.

But while the case is yet to be heard in court, the PPP proceeded to the premises of the EC Friday morning with their nomination papers and added the filing fees.

The EC shockingly accepted the documents much to the surprise of officials of the PPP, following which the Chairman of the party Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond demanded that the fees be returned, but the EC wouldn’t budge.

Some legal brains have said the PPP by submitting the filing fee has jeopardized its case in court, and is possibly in contempt of court as the case it yet to be heard.

But speaking on TV 3’s Eye on the Seat show Sunday, the Policy Adviser of the PPP, Kofi Asamoah Siaw stated that the party’s move was in accordance with the regulations of the EC, adding that it couldn’t have picked and chosen what to present to the Commission simply because there was an application on the process.

He further debunked suggestions that the party sought to trap the EC with that move, saying it was simply unaware of the Commission’s decision not to accept the filing fee, even though the EC’s decision was reported all over the media.

“We had not heard it, you watched television. Whatever is news is determined by the media, so that discretion is given to you. Why did Nana Akufo Addo went with his banker’s draft…hadn’t he heard anywhere that the PPP had filed an injunction application? So the point I’m making is that you don’t rely on media reports.”

He added: “How do you know we heard it or we didn’t hear it, you can’t use what you went to record as a Journalist to now proceed to make the argument that by that, necessarily the PPP should have heard it. There are official communications that must come from the EC,” Kofi Asamoah Siaw told Host Winston Amoah.