A private legal practitioner, Yaw Oppong, has called for a “holistic review” the make-up of constituencies in the country by the Electoral Commission (EC).
Speaking on The Big Issue, he said some constituencies are so large “sometimes you wonder how even one MP can handle.”
“Representation alone may not be enough. We also need positive utilitarian representation; a representation that works. That is why over the years, we have expanded the number of constituencies in Ghana depending on when it is deemed appropriate to carve off a part of a constituency or alter an existing one.
“There are large portions of this country where we have to look at whether or not it is not also appropriate to carve out portions of it. Some have too large a size of land that you cannot get one Member of Parliament [representing],” Mr. Oppong said.
Mr. Oppong was commenting on the calls for the creation of the Guan constituency in the Oti Region.
Eligible voters in the Guan District were not able to elect a representative for Parliament because the creation of their constituency is pending.
Also, giving his take on The Big Issue, IMANI Africa President Franklin Cudjoe said the “it is unfortunate that happened and it must be corrected immediately.”
He feels the EC must take more blame in the matter.
“You can’t be helping people to be expressing their civic duty when at the same time, surreptitiously connive to deny them the opportunity to do the same,” Mr. Cudjoe said.
The areas within the newly created Guan District are Santrofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi.
The people of Lolobi and Akpafu have petitioned the EC on the matter and is still awaiting a response.
In a recent letter to the EC, they said the EC had “taken our guaranteed rights away from us, thus unlawfully shutting the door on us.”
Among the questions they asked was “under which Constituency were the Presidential election votes of Lolobi and Akpafu collated?”
“Even more pertinent, it appears votes duly cast and counted at the various Polling Stations in the Presidential Elections were taken to an unlisted Constituency Collation Centre and hence did not reflect in all published results of the 2020 elections.”
They had wished to be part of the Hohoe district during the creation of new regions but did not get their wish.
