National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer hopeful Dr. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah says it is not the responsibility of aspirants to raise funds for the party. His comments come on the back of issues raised about the amount aspirants are expected to pay as filing fee, which some executives of the party have said is to cater for expenses in next year’s flagbearer elections. Speaking on TV3‘sNew Day on Tuesday, December 4, Dr. Spio-Garbrah said the GHȻ420, 000, in total, charged able-bodied male aspirants does not portray good governance on the part of party executives. “Why did they not raise that money when they themselves were candidates? They did not do that for themselves, but when it came down to some other people they say you pay GHȻ420, 000. It is not based on any good governance practice. “What is the basis? There must be some reference point; it cannot be that the party needs money. Just three weeks ago, we had our delegates’ conference; the party needed money then, and the party [needed money] now. The same executives sat down and developed their own filing fee.” ‘Stumbling blocks’ He accused the party executives of “truncating the system and putting in very tight hurdles and stumbling blocks” to make it difficult for any honest person to run the race. “This is not a test of how efficient you will be as a president; it is not how quickly you can go around getting nomination forms, it is not about how much money you can gather in a short time. “It’s about ideas; solutions to poverty, solutions to health, to sanitation, that is the true test to the person that Ghanaians want to lead them.” He noted that using any criteria either than testing how efficient a leader can be in solving the issues that confront Ghanaians leaves the whole governance system of Ghana at stake. According to Dr. Spio-Garbrah, running a political system which involves that much money will push donor supporters away from helping the country. “Our development partners are watching all of these, from the World Bank, the Japanese government, and the Dutch government. They will say if there are people in this country who can command this amount this quickly, then maybe Ghana does not need all this development assistant they write to us about,” Dr. Spio-Garbrah said. The flagbearer hopeful also raised issues with the time frame given aspirants to get signatories on their forms. “When it was time for these same executives to do their own filing.., they took six weeks, but they are giving flagbearer aspirants 10 days to move around 10 regions and 275 constituencies to get signatories, you have to use helicopters or use witchcraft to do this,” he said. He called on the NDC Council of Elders to intervene for a reduction in the filing fees and look into other issues raised by the aspirants.
By Irene Amesimeku| 3news.com| Ghana]]>
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