PPP to file contempt suit against EC on Monday
The PPP is in court over the GHC50, 000 filing fee for presidential nominees, leading to an injunction placed on some aspects of the filing process.
“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, the 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 told Accra-based Class FM.
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?”
The party is pursuing 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 EC accepted a banker’s draft of GHC 50,000 which was attached to the nomination forms of the presidential aspirant Dr Paa Kwesi Nduom on Friday, 30 September.
The EC had earlier rejected the fees of other presidential nominees the previous day.
Background:
On September 29, 2016, the Electoral Commission started accepting completed forms of presidential and parliamentary hopefuls without taking the filing fee.
This is due to an injunction secured by the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) over the ‘high’ filing fees for presidential and parliamentary aspirants.
Today (September 30, 2016) which is the closing date for filing of nominations the EC in what can be described as a turnaround accepted the filing fee of the Presidential nominee of the PPP.
The National Chairman of the party, Nii Allotey Brew-Hammond and National Treasurer Felix Ograh presented the completed forms on behalf of Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom.
In presenting the documents, the Brew-Hammond also added the filing fee to it. Even though every political party’s fee was rejected, the EC accepted that of the PPP.
Chairperson of the EC Mrs Charlotte Osei explained that she accepted it because the PPP knew of the legal implications and still brought the money, so they [EC] have accepted it.
Even though Brew-Hammond asked for the money to be given back to him, the EC refused and kept it.
Meanwhile Brew-Hammond argued that they presented the filing fee with the forms "because regulations indicated that all of the submission of nominations should be accompanied with the filing fee so we were complying with that.”
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