Constitutional Instrument creating 45 new constituencies to be withdrawn

The Electoral Commission (EC) is to withdraw the Representation of the People Instrument (Parliamentary Constituencies), CI 73, 2012 seeking to establish 45 new constituencies because of errors and misrepresentation.

Thus a corrected version is to be placed before the House on Wednesday, August 15, after the leadership withdrew the error-ridden CI 73, which the Majority wanted passed whilst the House took the necessary measures to correct the anomalies.

Parliament was to consider and debate the CI 73 on Wednesday but an addendum to the order of proceedings made available to members on the floor of the House stated that the Instrument was to be replaced by an amended version.

But Majority Leader Cletus Avoka told members that the amended version of the CI 73 still had errors that had to be cleaned by both sides of the House before it was laid on Wednesday to begin the mandated 21 sitting days after which the Instrument becomes law.

He said members would use the rest of Tuesday to peruse the amended document and liaise with their constituencies and electoral areas to ensure that those irregularities in the CI 73 were duly rectified.

The older version would have ended its constitutionally mandated maturity period of 21 days by close of sitting of Parliament on Wednesday, August 15.

The Minority Leader Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu agreed that the move would be in the interest of the consensus that the nation sought to build.

The Instrument was laid before Parliament on July 17, and was subsequently rejected by the Subsidiary Legislation Committee, citing numerous errors, anomalies and misplacement of existing electoral areas in the CI 73 that could lead to litigation, disenfranchising of eligible voters and marring the fluidity of the electoral process.

Parliament, however, goes on recess on Thursday, August 16.

Source: GNA