A political science lecturer at the University of Ghana says filing fees charged by the Electoral Commission (EC) from presidential and parliamentary candidates are deterring individuals from entering the political space.
Dr Seidu Alidu says the number of presidential candidates who filed their nominations Thursday after an Accra High Court has placed an injunction on the filing fees is evident of the response the nation could get when fees are kept at minimal.
Speaking to Joy News a day to the deadline for the submission of nomination forms, Dr Alidu said he is confident the democratic credential of the country would be deepened if more people are encouraged to participate in the governance of the country.
“The EC was not able to take the filing fees of GH¢50,000 for presidential and GH¢10,000 for parliamentary, so people could have seen it an opportunity to troop in and just dump the forms with the EC and whatever happens after the court’s declaration, they can come back to the EC,” he said.
The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has sued the EC over the filing fees for both the presidential and parliamentary candidates in the upcoming polls.
The suit, which was filed at the Accra High Court Monday, cited the Minister of Justice and Attorney General as co-defendants.
However, the political scientist says this speaks volumes of the electoral system as this suggests that a lot of people are willing to go into public service but for the cap placed on it in terms of fees and other limiting factors.
“If there are barriers it may one way or the other impact on the citizens who are willing to participate and serve this country not being able to put themselves up for election,” he said.
Dr Alidu noted there is one thing about putting a cap on the number of people who can serve the state at a time, but importantly, the filter should not be so severe that it rules out people who are capable and competent but would not be able to afford the cap especially if it has to do with monetary threshold.
“There should be a balance between filtering people who are serious to put themselves up for public service and also giving an opportunity to those who are competent but don’t have money.
“I don’t think finance or money should be the important qualification criteria or disqualification criteria so people who are willing to serve this country to put themselves up to be elected,” he said.
Nonetheless, he agrees there should be a limit of some sort to prevent a chaotic situation of where everyone wants to serve because of the benefits they seek to gain.
He is calling for a delicate balance to measure the attitude of people who are serious to serve and putting a limit to those who are not serious stating emphatically that it should not be largely driven by money.
According to him, parties and individuals should note that submitting the forms does not mean they are automatic candidates for the election as the EC has to go through their documents to determine if they have checked all the right boxes.
“I also believe that after the determination by the court the EC will still revisit the issue of the filing fees. I don’t think they are going to contest for free,” he said.
Two-horse race?
Although the 1992 Constitution of Ghana provides for a multiparty state Seidu Alidu said, “We all know from the start of the fourth republic it has always been between the New patriotic party (NPP) and the National democratic Congress (NDC) who have been able to share 75 percent of the valid votes.”
“The competition is going to be between the two parties but I think the PPP is likely to improve on its votes but that won’t be enough to deter the two giant parties from emerging victorious,” he said
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