New Constituencies: Minority MPs Roar As EC Lays Paper

The Electoral Commission on Tuesday brought to Parliament a new Constitutional Instrument seeking to create new constituencies around the country. Minority MPs objected to the laying of the paper, citing the pendency of a judicial decision on the matter at the Supreme Court. The Speaker, however, disagreed with the Minority and instead referred the document to the Subsidiary Legislation Committee for discussion and report. Per the provisions of article 11 (c) of the Constitution, �Any Order, Rule or Regulation made by a person or authority under a power conferred by this Constitution or any other law shall come into force at the expiration of 21 sitting days after being so laid unless Parliament, before the expiration of the 21 days, annuls the Order, Rule or Regulation by votes of not less than two-thirds of all the members of Parliament.� Article 47(5) of the 1992 Constitution mandates the EC to �review the division of Ghana into constituencies at intervals of not less than seven years, or within 12 months after the publication of the enumeration figures after holding of a census of the population of Ghana, whichever is earlier, as may, as a result, alter constituencies�. The EC, in 2004, increased the number of constituencies from 200 to the current 230 and according to the Commission, 45 more constituencies need to be created to make the current figure proportional to the newly created districts, following the recent release of the final figures of the 2010 population census.