A flag bearer hopeful of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Alban Bagbin, has officially accepted the nomination forms picked on his behalf by his supporters, making him the last candidate to formally join the race as nominations closed on Saturday, 8 December 2018.

Mr Bagbin had earlier rejected the forms that were picked for him by Mr David Dzawara.

The Second Deputy Speaker of parliament was protesting against the exorbitant GHS400,000 filing fee and had, thus, together with seven other flag bearer hopefuls, petitioned the Council of Elders to intervene in the matter.

The Council of Elders’ intervention caused the filing fee to be slashed by GHS100,000, reducing it to GHS300,000, but the nomination form was maintained at GHS20,000.

Mr Dzawara confirmed that Mr Bagbin has now accepted the nomination forms and sent a letter of notice to that effect to the party.

“We the constituents decided to go for the forms for him and he rejected it with the reason that there were some lingering legal issues that they had petitioned the Council of Elders [about], so, he was waiting for those issues to be addressed. When we picked the forms, the filing fee was still GHS400,000, which he and other aspirants were vehemently opposed to, so, at the end of the day, it was reduced from GHS400,000 to GHS300,000. So based on that, he has now changed his position and has accepted the forms. He gave us a letter of acceptance to be sent to the national executives for them to amend his records. He has now accepted personally and officially to enter the contest,” Mr Dzawara told Accra-based Citi FM.

Former president John Mahama, Ekow Spio Garbrah, Sylvester Mensah, Nurideen Iddrissu and Mr Goosie Tanoh have all picked the nomination forms.