Do the needful and let Guan constituency be created – Kofi Adams
Legislator for the Buem Constituency located in the newly created Oti Region Kofi Adams has called on the Electoral Commission to present a constitutional instrument to create the Guan constituency.
It will be recalled that in the 2020 elections residents in that area were able to participate in the presidential but were not able to vote in the parliamentary elections due to a directive from the Electoral Commission because the area was not under a constituency then.
However, a constitutional instrument required to create a constituency could not mature in the 7th Parliament.
Mr. Kofi Adams is calling on the EC to take the necessary steps required to present a constitutional instrument before Parliament.
“The delay is unfortunate because this is something that the Electoral Commission should have speedily acted on because they were the ones who wrote the letter indicating that the area that now forms the Guan district will not take part in the elections of MPs on the 7th December 2020… From then till now, they [EC] should have taken the necessary steps to bring a C.I. before this Parliament to create a constituency,” he said.
The Guan District comprises the areas of include Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL) traditional areas.
Some residents from these areas dragged the EC to court over their inability to vote.
The Guan Districts previously under the Hohoe municipality is now situated in the Oti Region which was created backed by a Legislative Instrument laid in Parliament by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in 2019.
Residents of Lolobi and Akpafu have also petitioned the EC on the matter and are still awaiting a response while they also in a letter addressed to the EC, said the electoral body has “taken our guaranteed rights away from us, thus unlawfully shutting the door on us”.
Among the questions they asked was “under which Constituency was the Presidential election votes of Lolobi and Akpafu collated?” they quizzed.
The people of SALL said they had wished to be part of the Hohoe district during the creation of new regions.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
