The Council of Elders of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) are scheduled to meet the party’s National Executives today in relation to the GHC420,000 filing fee for picking and filing of nomination forms for Presidential aspirants.

The NEC is expected to brief the Council of Elders under the Chairmanship of Founder and ex President Jerry John Rawlings on what informed their decision and chart the way forward for the party.

Nine aspirants eyeing the National Democratic Congress (NDC) flagbearer position petitioned the party’s Council of Elders over the GHc20,000 and GHc 400,000 costs respectively for nomination forms and filing fees.

Alban Bagbin, Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, Joshua Alabi, Sylvester Mensah, Stephen Atubiga, Nurideen Iddrissu, Goosie Tanoh, Kojo Bonsu and Elikplim Agbemava, are the aspirants that petitioned the Council.

Having sighted a party document on guidelines for the conduct of the election, the seven, who form the majority of aspirants for the position, feel the party’s plans ahead of the election are “inimical to the interests of the NDC.”

This is despite the NDC’s General Secretary, Johnson Asiedu Nketia, saying the fees were moderate.

The filing fees in particular prompted the petition which is in accordance with Article 24(4)(a) of the NDC Constitution, which they contend is to “prevent irreparable harm to the Party.”

Among other concerns, they say the NEC has not met the procedural requirements set out in Article 42(1)(f) of the Party Constitution for publishing Electoral Guidelines, and generally has not met standards of stakeholder consultation acceptable in a social democratic party.”

They also argued that in publishing the Guidelines, NEC has “exceeded the authority vested in it by Article 42(1)(f) of the constitution, to wit imposed eligibility criteria not provided for in the Party Constitution.”

Meanwhile four aspirants have picked their forms to contest for the party's flagbearer position scheduled to hold on 19 January 2019.