CI now 78; Minority cautions against slippery road the CI is taking Ghana

The Minority Leader is cautioning against what he says is the slippery road the creation of the 45 new constituencies is taking the country.

According to Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu, the comedy of errors that has riddled the passage of the Constitutional Instrument that will legitimize the creation of the new constituencies has further complicated matters.

He was reacting to the Majority Leaders' comments that a new Constitutional Instrument with a serial number of 78 will be laid before the House on Wednesday.

Cletus Avoka told Joy News' Evans Mensah that the “controversial document” he laid but withdrew on August 15 will now be relayed on September 5, 2012.

According to him, the new CI will now bear the serial number 78 after the previous numbers of 73 and 77 were challenged on their own merits or demerits by the Minority.

The Minority resisted the passage of the CI 73 because it was pregnant with mistakes and also described as alien the CI 77 that was relayed in Parliament on Monday.

Subsequently, the Majority again withdrew the CI 77 with a promise to relay a thoroughly corrected CI 78 on Wednesday.

Cletus Avoka explained the changes in serial numbers were done by the Assembly Press with the indication that once a CI has been withdrawn it cannot be relayed with the same serial number.

He said when the CI 78 is eventually relayed on Wednesday it will push back the date of maturity into law of the CI for another three days.

Which means the 45 new constituencies will now become law on October 2.

By law, it takes 21 days for CI laid in Parliament to mature into law.

Osei Kyei Mensah-Bonsu said if the new October date is anything to go by, political parties will have barely two months to elect candidates for the new constituencies.

He said the parties will now have to constitute new executives, open nominations and conduct elections all within this short period, an exercise he described as imprudent.

He said it will be unwise to ask the parties to go down this slippery path.

But the Majority Leader Cletus Avoka said there is nothing imprudent about the creation of the 45 new constituencies.

He argued the issue has been thoroughly discussed in Parliament and at IPAC with all stakeholders involved, insisting the Electoral Commission is poised to get the constituencies created.

He implored all parties to cooperate with the Commission to have the constituencies created.