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| Under fire EC withdraws demarcation move |
10/9/2011 |
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Electoral Commission has frozen its plans to create new constituencies within the country.
Ahead of Friday’s Inter Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting with the various political parties in the country, the EC was expected to announce a firm decision as to how many new constituencies it intends to add to the already existing 230.
However, during the much anticipated meeting, the EC told the political parties it moves to re-demarcate the nation’s constituencies in line with the 1992 Constitution have been stalled by a number of challenges, including a pending court action over the proposed new seats.
Ivor Greenstreet, General Secretary of the Convention People’s Party told Citi News that the meeting discussed the timetable for the commencement of work on the biometric registration system for the 2012 general elections.
He, however, noted that the CPP is not opposed to raising the number of seats in parliament, but it is only concerned about some flaws in the law that governs the raising of the number of seats in parliament.
“We are not opposed to the fundamental idea of raising the numbers, but at the same time we think that the laws may have some fundamental flaws because that is going to imply that forever we shall continue to be increasing constituencies purely on the basis of administrative areas or on the basis of population,” Greenstreet stated.
His counterpart on the side of the ruling National Democratic Congress Johnson Asiedu-Nketia also told Citi News that the decision to create new constituencies is solely the decision of the Electoral Commission and not the political parties.
He added that if the EC finally decides and calls on the NDC, the party would be ready to help the electoral outfit in any way.
On his part, the National Chairman of the opposition New Patriotic Party, Jake Obetsebi Lamptey said the decision to create new constituencies must be thoroughly examined by the EC and the various political parties since it comes with additional costs.
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