<<Print>>

As the clock ticks towards December 7, 2012 for the general election, political parties are gearing up to fulfil the electoral requirement which will eventually qualify them for the polls. As a first step, nine political parties and an independent presidential aspirant, Mr Jacob Osei Yeboah, have picked nomination forms from the headquarters of the Electoral Commission (EC) to be completed and submitted on October 17 or 18, 2012, together with GH�10,000. Other requirements are tax clearance certificates and four bust photographs of candidates with red background. The four nomination forms must be endorsed by two registered voters from each district. The parties that have picked forms so far are the Progressive People�s Party (PPP), the Independent People�s Party (IPP), the United Front Party (UFP), the New Vision Party (NVP), the New Patriotic Party (NPP), the People�s National Convention (PNC), the United Renaissance Party (URP), the Democratic People�s Party (DPP) and the Convention People�s Party (CPP). Some flag bearers, and in some cases their representatives, picked the forms, without being followed by their supporters and on the blind side of the media. But judging by past happenings, all attention will be focused on the premises of the EC Headquarters when the aspirants submit their forms on October 17 and 18. It is expected that the other political parties, including the National Democratic Congress (NDC), and more independent candidates will pick their forms in subsequent days. Last Thursday, the EC announced the opening of nominations which it said would attract GH�10,000 for presidential aspirants and GH�1,000 for parliamentary aspirants. Some political parties, especially the NDC and NPP, expressed worry over the hike in the nomination fees. They argued that the amount charged was a whopping 100 per cent increase over what was charged last four years. Reacting to the concerns raised by some political parties of the high nomination fees, the Public Affairs Director of the EC, Mr Christian Owusu-Parry, said the setting of the fees was an administrative procedure governed by law and which did not require any consultation with the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC). He quoted Constitutional Instrument (CI) 77, Regulation 61 (b) which states partly that the commission sets �deposits and cause to be deposited such sum as the amount of money the commission shall determine�. He also explained that any presidential candidate who would obtain 25 per cent or more of the valid votes cast would have his or her GH�10,000 refunded, while in the case of parliamentary aspirants they would have to secure 12.5 per cent of the valid votes cast to have their nomination fees refunded to them. Mr Owusu-Parry reiterated the EC�s call that political parties desirous of sponsoring candidates for the parliamentary election and individuals who were interested in contesting the said election might obtain nomination forms from the returning officers in the respective constituencies or the regional offices of the EC.