Jean Mensa – Chairperson of EC
The Electoral Commission (EC) has submitted to Parliament a Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) for the creation of the Guan Constituency in the Oti Region.
The C.I. is intended to amend the Representation of the People (Parliamentary Constituencies) Instrument to allow residents in the Guan Constituency, which includes the traditional areas of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe, and Lolobi (SALL), to vote in the 2024 parliamentary election.
The new instrument will automatically become a law after 21 sitting days of Parliament to enable the EC to create the constituency.
Majority Leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah-Bonsu, on behalf of the EC, laid the Representation of the People (Parliamentary Constituencies) (Amendment) Instrument 2023 in the House yesterday.
Speaker of Parliament, Alban S.K. Bagbin, referred it to the Subsidiary Legislation Committee for consideration and to report to the House.
“This is the instrument that is likely to save this House and forgive us for the cardinal sin that we are said to have committed. It deals with the issue of the SALL and a number of them have come up for consideration as a House,” he explained.
According to the EC, the residents of SALL agreed that the constituency’s name should be Guan, with Likpe-Mate as capital, which is the same as the district capital.
The residents of SALL only voted in the presidential election in the 2020 general election because the EC did not have enough time to lay the C.I. before Parliament for the creation of the constituency.
Meanwhile, a new regulation to amend the District Electoral Areas and Designation of Units was also laid in the House by the Majority Leader.
By Ernest Kofi Adu, Parliament House