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The Electoral Commission yesterday said it would soon meet to consider whether or not to review amounts of money it announced as filing fees for both presidential and parliamentary candidates for December’s elections.

This followed the wave of bashing it received from some political parties for pegging presidential and parliamentary filing fees at GHc50, 000 and GHc10, 000 respectively, an amount they complain is too high.

Speaking on Citi FM, Head of Communications at the EC, Eric Dzakpasu, said the commission would meet to deliberate on the way forward.

“The commission has taken notice of the concerns and that the commission will meet and decide if there is a possibility of a review and that if there is a review it will be communicated to the political parties,” he stated.

Mr Dzakpasu explained that the amounts they fixed were done in accordance with the law, adding that the monies would be deposited in the Consolidated Fund if the presidential and parliamentary candidates fail to garner 25% and 12.5% votes respectively, during the December general elections.

“The law gave the mandate to the Electoral Commission to fix the nomination fee for both presidential and parliamentary election and this is the decision taken at the management level of the commission in compliance with the law.

“These fees that are collected from the political parties is a deposit in the sense that when you look at the regulation 45 of C.I.94, it says that at the end of the election where a presidential candidate is able to make 25% of the valid votes cast in the election, the money is refunded to the candidate and at the parliamentary level, if the candidate is able to make 12.5%, the money goes back to the candidate, otherwise it is forfeited and it is paid into the Consolidated Fund but not the account of the Electoral Commission,” he added.

The Commission has opened nominations for both presidential and parliamentary nominees in the country. Presidential nominees are to pick their forms at the EC Head office, while parliamentary nominees are to pick theirs at the various district offices.

Meanwhile, the People’s National Convention has described the fees as “not only prohibitive, but also hold the prospect of excluding many from the democratic process.”

According to the party, “this action by the Electoral Commission reduces our democracy to a commodity for the highest bidder. Such a situation is objectionable and should be resisted by all.”

“Increasing the nomination fees by 500% and 1000% for Presidential and Parliamentary Candidates respectively, is a clear communication by the EC that, it wants to limit participation in this year’s elections. It further emphasizes the premium placed on cash and not content by the EC – a situation that can rob our country of all the major gains made in democratic consolidation,” the party said yesterday in a statement signed by its General Secretary, Atik Mohammed.

Drawing attention to the fact that the fees charged by the EC do not form a part of the pool of resources used to conduct the elections, the statement questioned the essence of demanding such high fees from political parties and candidates only to deposit them idly in the EC’s accounts.

“Regrettably, we have also heard arguments that seem to suggest that these outrageous sums are justifiable because, a political party that cannot raise this huge amount of money to file for its candidates is simply showing lack of capacity to for m a government. As if to say that, the object of the democratic exercise is to select the wealthy. These unfortunate views are only acceptable in an oligarchy,” the statement added.

The PNC says in view of the “democratic injury” this action by the EC is likely to occasion, it is appealing for a reduction of the nomination fees to the 2012 levels, whereby Presidential Candidates and Parliamentary Candidates would pay GHS5, 000.00 and GHS 1,000.00 respectively.

“We are also calling on all other political parties that share the PNC’s position, to join hands with us to pursue this noble agenda of stopping the sale of our electoral democracy. We must stand together in defence of our democracy. The PNC is willing and ready to employ all tools to reverse this move and it is our hope that, comrades from other parties will pledge their support,” the statement added.