EC urges public to disregard information about Guan Constituency

Ghanaians have been advised by the Electoral Commission (EC) to reject rumors that have been making rounds on social media about the inability of residents of the Guan Constituency to cast ballots in the 2020 Parliamentary Election.

The commission urged Ghanaians to reject the charges, calling them baseless and untrue, in a statement released and signed by Michael Boadu, the acting head of public affairs at the EC.

“The commission never disenfranchised the good people of the newly created Guan Constituency. It is not in our interest to do so. “We urge the public to verify information put out by IMANI, with the Commission for the truth and the facts,” the statement said.

The statement also included the Commission’s letter to the Attorney General proposing the creation of the new constituency, as well as a letter from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development asking the Commission to do the same.

This comes after Franklin Cudjoe, the President of Imani, charged that the Commission had denied the residents of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi, and Lipke (SALL) their right to vote.

Timeline

It clarified that the charges are the result of a misinterpretation of the sequence of events that precedes the 2020 General Election. The statement attempted to make clear that, just one month before the election, on October 6, 2020, the Legislative Instrument (L.I. 2416) establishing the Guan District (SALL) was laid in Parliament and matured on November 9, 2020.

However, the day the L.I. matured and came back after the elections on December 14, 2020, was also the day Parliament went into recess. On November 10, 2020, the Commission received a letter from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development requesting that it establish a new Constituency and notifying it of the creation of the Guan Constituency.

It stated that in response to the ministry’s request, on November 13, 2020, the Commission prepared a new Constitutional Instrument (C.I.) to establish the Guan Constituency and sent it to the Attorney General’s Department for review.

However the Commission was unable to create the new Constituency while Parliament was in recess, because a C.I. must be laid in Parliament for 21 sitting days in order to mature and enter into law.

IMANI President

As a local resident of the area Mr. Cudjoe responded to the EC by restating that rather than justifying its actions, the Commission need to take ownership of the situation and offer an apology to the residents of SALL.

He charged that the EC was being indifferent to the reality that the Guan Constituency, which was newly established, does not have a representative in the Eighth Parliament of the Fourth Republic.