Election 2016: Court dismisses PPP's filing fee suit against EC


An Accra High Court on Wednesday, dismissed a suit file by the Progressive People’s Party (PPP) against the Electoral Commission of Ghana, over the filing fee for presidential candidates.

The court has therefore, awarded a cost of Ghc10, 000 against the PPP.

The EC, on September 8, 2016, increased the filing fee for presidential candidates from GH¢5,000 in 2012 to GH¢50,000 and that for parliamentary candidates from GH¢1,000 in 2012 to GH¢10,000 in this year’s elections.

Per the directive issued by the electoral body, the filing fees were deposited at the bank which will be confiscated should a presidential candidate fail to secure 25 per cent of the presidential votes and a parliamentary candidate fail to secure 12.5 per cent of votes in a constituency.

Not satisfied with the decision, the PPP dragged the EC to court and described fees by the EC as “discriminatory, arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable,” in its writ of summons.

It sought a declaration that the proper instrument that the EC could employ to charge fees for presidential or parliamentary elections was a statutory instrument and not a constitutional instrument.

It also wanted an order from the court to bar the EC from collecting the filing fees until the “appropriate statutory instruments have been passed in accordance with the appropriate legal regime’’.

But the High Court on Friday dismissed the suit.

SOURCE: Daily Graphic