EC submits request to withdraw C.I. for creation of Guan constituency
The Electoral Commission (EC) has submitted a request to Parliament to withdraw a Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) it caused to be laid in Parliament last week.
That C.I. seeks to create a new Guan constituency for the Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lipke and Lolobi (SALL) areas that currently do not have representation in the 8th Parliament.
According to Majority Leader Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, the EC’s request is due to their fear that the C. I may not mature in time, causing a delay in the upcoming District Level Election.
“They submitted a request to withdraw it and the very day of reconvening, they had submitted it for presentation and concurrently, they had submitted another one for its withdrawal.
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“The reason for the withdrawal was simple. It was that if you created a constituency, you then needed to hold the District Level Election to conform to the creation of the constituency. However, there was not going to be any constituency at that time,” he explained.
He added that another factor that caused the withdrawal is because “it will delay the conduct of the District Level Election because the moment that sets in, it will then course them to hold on the conduct of the District Level Election.”
However, Minority Leader Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson says that may not be necessary and that have advised the EC to keep the C. I in Parliament and, if necessary, postpone the District Level Election in the new Guan constituency for later.
“You can actually hold the District Level Election for Guan constituency after you have gone through the processes of electing Assembly members for the other constituencies. So on that basis, the EC has no grounds to withdraw the C.I,” he said.
According to him, there has been an agreement between the sustain legislation committee members and the Electoral Commission, that the C. I will no longer be withdrawn.
This, he says is because “if the basis for the withdrawal has to do with the conduct of the District Level Election alone, then, another date can be set two or three weeks after.”
“If it means that Parliament will have to sit some extra days then we may have to have that conversation.”
Source: Ghana News
