NPP SETTLES ON 200-MILLION CEDIS FOR PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Very reliable information at the disposal of this paper indicates that the long awaited riddle of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) as to how much should any of its members intending to vie for the flag bearer ship position pay is about to be solved.

A source from the party’s Kokomlemle based headquarters told this reporter that the executives are about arriving at a consensus of charging each interested candidate, an amount of 200-million cedis as filing fees. This will be about 100-million cedis more than what the candidates of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) paid last year.

This will also put to rest speculations that the party may be settling for an amount as high as 500-million cedis so as to deter or cut down the increasing number of people showing interest in the party’s top post.

The Ashanti Regional Chairman of the NPP, Nana Appiah Menkah had proposed in an interview with an Accra Daily Newspaper that, due to the increasing number of potential candidates who are by the day expressing interest in contesting the NPP’s flagbearership in the 2008 General Elections, the National Executive Council should impose a fee that will make many of the candidates back off from the race.

Another reason he gave that made him to arrive at this decision is that as a party in power, they need not create the impression that they have money and so if a high fee is imposed and collected, then the party’s source of funds for campaign will be justified. Nana Appiah Menkah then proceeded to suggest that in view of that, a fee of 500-million cedis will not be out of place, but will go rightly to serve this purpose.

As expected, this generated a lot of debate within and outside the party, in the media, at public places among others. Whilst, some were of the opinion that 500-million cedis was on the higher side, others boldly agreed with Nana Menkah saying, “the party needs money”.

Many of the potential candidates also complained that indeed the amount was too much. Some of them were however quick to add that “even if it is 2-billion cedis that the party will settle on as filing fee, I will pay”.
Recently, some newspapers published that the party was in the process of settling on 100-million cedis to enable more people come on board the presidential race.

However, our sources disclosed to us that the 200-million cedis is being agreed upon based on the fact that there is democracy in the party to the extent that any individual who want to become President could boldly come forward and register without reducing much of the zeros in their accounts. “200-million cedis is cheap and anybody who cannot afford it must be too poor to become a President, our source stated.

By Jorge Wilson Kingson