Reject new constituencies – CDD tells Parliament
The Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) on Tuesday called on the Subsidiary Legislation Committee of Parliament and Parliament as a whole to examine the Electoral Commission’s (EC) proposal to create additional 45 constituencies in a bi-partisan fashion and reject it accordingly.
It affirmed its deep respect for the principle of representation as fundamental to democratic good governance yet it is of the view that the current formula and procedure for realising this objective is reckless.
“The timing of the creation of these constituencies and the consequent financial cost do not suggest sound public policy planning and good financial management practice.”
The call was contained in a statement issued in Accra by the CDD-Ghana, copied to Ghana News Agency on Tuesday.
It said: ” The CDD-Ghana, wishes to express its reservations about the proposal of the EC to create 45 new constituencies before the 2012 Election. CDD-Ghana, fully acknowledges the constitutional mandate of the EC to undertake periodic revision of constituency boundaries. However, it is of the view that the procedure adopted by the EC to create the new constituencies is flawed and inconsistent with Article 47 of the 1992 Constitution”.
The CDD-Ghana said that the mandate for the EC to review the division of Ghana into constituencies did not necessarily compel an increment in the number of constituencies
The statement said: “CDD-Ghana is totally convinced that the prevailing practice by which the EC’s review of constituencies automatically leads to an increase in the number of parliamentary constituencies is wrong and unsustainable. Secondly, even if the EC decides to propose increment in the number of constituencies as it exercises its discretion in the implementation of its constitutional mandate to ‘review the division of Ghana into constituencies’, population quota must be the primary consideration in apportioning constituencies as dictated by the constitution in abiding by the principles of democratic representation.”
It said that the timing of the creation of additional constituencies also presented its own challenges to the electoral calendar.
The statement said the EC was already late in meeting its own original schedule regarding preparations towards December 7, and that “It will make good public management sense for the EC to put its energy into providing a credible and reliable biometric voter register and getting ready for the December polls, which from all indications, is going to be closely contested”.
It said CDD-Ghana was also worried about the logistical and financial implications of the decision to create new constituencies, which would impose additional burdens on the country’s already stretched public finances.
The statement noted that the addition of 45 constituencies would necessarily require modifications to the physical structure of the existing chamber of Parliament and said that It would have to be re-designed to accommodate 275 Members of Parliament (MPs) from 2013.
It said “In addition, the country would be saddled with the additional financial burden of catering for 45 MPs for the next four years, in addition to financing ex-gratia payments for 275 MPs in 2017.
“It is patently unfair for Ghanaian taxpayers to be asked to finance this project for the institution of Parliament, which has itself done so little, under successive governments, to protect the national purse.”
Source: GNA