A formidable queue of four presidential aspirants and some Parliamentary contenders will form at the office of the Electoral Commission today when the filing of nominations for the December general election opens this morning. By the programme outline of the EC, the flag bearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, will be the first to arrive at 10 a.m. to go through the filling processes. He is expected to be followed by a large crowd of supporters. Nana Akufo-Addo will be followed by the flag-bearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), Prof. John Evans Atta Mills, who will take his turn at 12 noon. Prof. Mills, after filing his papers at the Electoral Commission office in Accra, will move to the Ashanti Region to start an intensive tour of the region. According to Mr Asiedu-Nketia, General Secretary of the party, the party would file its nominations on a quiet note. He said it had met all the requirements and the party machinery was ready to take off. An independent presidential aspirant, Mr Kwesi Amoafo Yeboah, will take his turn at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, while the Convention People's Party (CPP) will file at 3 pm. Mr David Ampofo, the Campaign Strategist of Nduom for President 2008, said they were also set to file their nominations in the afternoon. "We definitely will welcome a few party supporters and sympathisers who would like to join us during the filing process," he said. He, however; cautioned supporters who would be on the premises of the EC to exercise restraint, behave in an orderly manner and show to the world that the CPP was a party of peace. The flag-bearer of the Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), Mr Emmanuel Ansah Antwi., will file on Friday at 9 a.m. Other interested political groupings have not indicated to the EC when they intend to file their nominations. According to Mr Albert Kofi Arhin, Director of Elections at the commission, all was set for the commission to receive nominations from the various aspirants. He described that phase of the electoral exercise as very important because it would give the parties and their respective flag-bearers recognition to become candidates to contest the 2008 presidential and parliamentary elections. He said while the commission would treat the two-day event as a normal exercise and endeavour to work within the stipulated schedule, it was important for the political parties and their supporters to comport themselves at the precincts of the commission. "We want to have an orderly and decent exercise in the room where filing will take place and we expect to have the flag-bearers and their executives perform that function. Supporters accompanying them must remain outside the precincts in order not to interfere with the process," Mr Arhin stressed. He said since the week began, the commission had been receiving enquiries from some political parties and individuals regarding the modalities, payments, pictures, among other issues, and that the commission had taken those parties through the procedures. He said balloting for positions on the ballot paper of the December presidential and parliamentary election would take place on Monday. He explained that there would be two ballots, with the first one meant for the parties to pick a number, which would indicate when a party would pick for its position on the ballot paper. That, Mr Arhin said, would allow the parties to have fair opportunities to pick another number for their position. He said independent candidates would not engage in that exercise because they automatically would follow the political parties. "If there are more than one independent candidate, we will use the alphabetical order to position them," he said. Mr Arhin said if positions were picked at the national level, it would be replicated at the constituency levels. Source: Daily Graphic