The New Patriotic Party (NPP) opens its nominations for Presidential and Parliamentary primaries today.
The exercise is set to start from January 20 to February 20, 2020.
A statement signed by the party’s General Secretary, John Boadu, said aspiring presidential candidates will be required to pay GH₵200,000 as filing fee, while parliamentary candidates will be required to pay a party development fee of GH₵30,000.
The statement goes on to add that all aspiring parliamentary candidates are to procure nomination forms after the payment of the non-refundable application fee of GH₵2,000 in bankers draft.
Also, all aspiring parliamentary candidates other than the sitting Members of Parliament are also to pay a party development Fee of GH₵30,000
Women, youth and persons with disability (PWDs) are to enjoy a rebate of 50 per cent on the filing fees and development levy and will be required to pay GH₵27,000.
In 2014, Presidential aspirants of the party paid GH¢ 85,000—they paid Gh¢10,000 for picking the nomination forms, with GH¢75,000 as filing fee.
In May 2015, the party pegged filing fees for a parliamentary aspirant in an orphan constituency at GHȻ10,000 while a sitting Member of Parliament seeking re-election also paid GHȻ10,000
However, an aspirant in a constituency with a sitting NPP Member of Parliament paid a filing fee of GHȻ10,000 and a development fee GHȻ20,000.
The statement further indicated that persons holding the positions of national chairman, general secretary, national treasurer, constituency chairman, regional secretary, regional treasurer, constituency chairman, constituency secretary, constituency treasurer, and MMDCEs were barred from contesting as parliamentary candidates.
“Those who wish to contest for the parliamentary candidate position will have to vacate their positions before they can contest, ” the statement stated.
It noted, “all aspiring parliamentary candidate shall be made to sign a contractual undertaking with the party committing himself or herself to support whoever is elected as the party’s parliamentary candidate after the process in the event that he or she is not elected/selected.”
Meanwhile, the NPP is scheduled to hold parliamentary primaries on April, 25, 2020 in all the 169 constituencies where the party has sitting MPs, with the exception of the Ayawaso West Wuogon constituency.
In that constituency, a joint National Executive committee meeting held on October 21, 2019 unanimously resolved that the incumbent MP for the area, Lydia Seyram Alhassan, who won the January 31, 2019 by-election should be the party’s candidate.