A sub-committee of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) Council of Elders, chaired by former President Jerry John Rawlings, on Thursday December 6, 2018 met eight flagbearer aspirants of the party in the office of the former President in Accra.
The meeting was to enable the subcommittee to present to the aspirants some proposals from the Council, in response to a petition received from the aspirants.
Following the decison taken by the party’s Council of Elders to reduce the filing fee for Presidential Aspirants from 400 thousand to 300 thousand Ghana cedis the decision was welcomed by aspirants.
The sale of nomination forms which closed on Tuesday, December 4, has now been extended to Saturday, December 8.
The nomination fee of GH¢20 thousand has however, been maintained.
The National Democratic Congress (NDC) on Thursday announced that a GH¢400,000.00 non-refundable filing fee would be paid by its presidential aspirants contesting the January 19, primaries.
Female contestants will, however, pay GH¢200,000.00 while People With Disabilities (PWDs) contestants will pay an amount of GH¢150,000.00, Mr Johnson Asiedu-Nketia, the General Secretary said.
Briefing the media on the “Road map for NDC Presidential Primaries” in Accra, he said payment of the filing fees would be made by banker’s draft.
Mr Asiedu-Nketia said the election of the presidential candidate would be held on the 19th January, 2019 at all the 275 constituency centres -voting centres for the elections.
However, he said, the national headquarters would also constitute an additional voting centre for all delegates from external branches.
So far eleven people have officially declared their intent to contest the primaries.
They include former President John Dramani Mahama; Alban Sumana Bagbin, the Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament; Mr Ekwow Spio Gabbah, a former Finance Minister; Kweku Ricketts-Hagan, a former Deputy Finance Minister; Prof. Joshua Alabi the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Professional Studies, Accra.
The rest are Sylvester Mensah, a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the National Health Insurance Authority; Kojo Bonsu, a former Metropolitan Chief Executive of Kumasi; Nurudeen Iddrisu; Stephen Atubiga, Goosie Tanoh and Elikem Agbemava.
Mr Asiedu-Nketia said the Party has set aside December 3 and 4, for aspirants to pick their forms and file them between December 13 and 14 respectively.
But eight of the aspirants petitioned the party’s council of elders on the decision taken by the party’s NEC.
Below is the full statement from the outcome of the meeting copied to gbconlineghana.com
The two parties discussed amongst others:
1. The timetable for the election of a flagbearer of the party and the need to give aspirants adequate time to meet with delegates as well as to raise money from supporters and pay their filing fees.
2. The need to consider the time table of the National Electoral Commission of Ghana with respect to their own internal work programme, so as not to conflict with the electoral time table of the NDC.
3. The implications of the imminent Christmas and New Year period on the flagbearership elections, which would slow down the ability of aspirants to campaign and meet with their
supporters and party faithful.
4. The challenging issue of the filing fees, which Council of Elders has recommended should be reduced to ¢300,000 from ¢400,000 but which all the aspirants felt does not properly
reflect the NDC’s history, values and ethos and seems to unreasonably promote access to money as a primary criterion for political leadership.
The General Secretary of the party who was present at the meeting, gave aspirants an explanation of the factors that led to the fixing of the filing fees and the time table for the elections.
The two parties concluded their meeting with the acknowledgement that there was need for continuing dialogue at the highest level of the party, especially between the Council of Elders, the national and functional executive committees and the aspirants.
The subcommittee of the Council of Elders indicated that there is the need to continue with their dialogue and consultations at all times.
The subcommittee of the Council of Elders which was chaired by former President Rawlings included Alhaji Iddrisu Mahama, Madam Aanaa Ennin, former Speaker Edward Doe Adjaho, Nii Okaija Adamafio and the Secretary, Akuamoah Boateng.
Aspirants present included Alban Bagbin, Ekwow Spio Garbrah, Sylvester Mensah, Professor Joshua Alabi, Goosie Tanoh, Alhaji Nurudeen Iddrisu, Stephen Atubiga, Elikplim Agbemava.
Signed:
Alhaji Mahama Iddrisu
