Bagbin to exit from NDC presidential race if ……

A presidential aspirant of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alban Bagbin says he will exit from the race if the Council of Elders of the party fail to impress upon the national executives to review the GHȻ400,000 filing fee.

“I will not pick the form and I will not file and I will make it known that it is not because I cannot mobilse” he said.

All male flagbearer aspirants of the party are to pay GH₵400,000 while female aspirants (so far none has declared interest) are to pay GHȻ200,000 while persons with disability aspiring to the same position are to pay GH₵150,000.

The announcement of the fee has since last week when it was made public, been met with a public outcry, particularly by a number of the aspirants and party folks. 

Read Also:GH₵420K fee: Social democracy not poverty – Asiedu Nketia

Speaking on Accra based Okay FM on Monday, Mr Bagbin said his decision is to prove a point, although he will be able to moblise the required amount.

“You will be right to say that I will not be part of it and I mean what I say. If they want to continue, it’s not that I can’t mobilise, I have supporters who are ready to do that. I have received so many calls from all over the country. People are prepared to contribute for me to do that”, he stressed.

He was of the view that paying the amount would be self-serving, saying "It’s just to put up a point because I didn’t go into politics to serve myself, and I went into politics to serve the society, to serve the people, and I don’t believe that path will lead to serving the people. I believe that that path will lead to self-serving rather than serving the people”.

He added that he will end up focusing on the priorities of his sponsors rather than looking at issues of merit and national interest if he is assisted to pay the money.

Encourage good material to serve

Reacting to the General Secretary of the party, Mr Johnson Asiedu Nketiah’s explanation that the party needs to raise funds to organise its primaries hence aspirants should have no issues coughing up the said amount, Mr Bagbin said the cost of a party activity should not be put on a few people that are opting to serve.

Rather, he said, it should be put on the shoulder of the entire party, adding that, that will enable members to support the activities of the party.

He added that it will also enable the best materials in the party to come out and also bring about a healthy competition and a unified front in the 2020 elections.

He stressed that the national executives must be able to encourage the good materials in the party to offer themselves to serve.

National executives got it wrong

Bagbin further stated that the national executives are putting in a qualification requirement which is neither legal nor moral, “A qualification that you must be financially loaded in order to be a leader. That is neither in any of our laws nor in the moral of our country”.

He added that the leaders got it wrong by imposing such an amount on the aspirants, “Particularly for NDC, where we don’t go for money, we go for the people, our focus is on humanity. It think that our leaders got it wrong”, he said.

Without mentioning names, he alleged that the increase in the filing fee is a deliberate attempt by the executives to favour one aspirant.