Afari-Gyan Defends Creation Of New Constituencies

Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, EC Chairman

The Chairman of the Electoral Commission (, Mr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, has responded to his critics on the creation of the 45 constituencies, asking them to propose viable alternatives in the formula for the creation of new constituencies or hold their peace.

He said the formula being used currently was an objective one and had been tested before.

He also asked those threatening to kill him if he went ahead with it, to be dispassionate and sober and reflect on the issue, since he was only adhering to a constitutional obligation.

Speaking at a high level forum organised by the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG) on the theme, “Two decades of electoral reforms in Ghana: the biometric voter registration systems in perspective,” Dr Afari-Gyan took the opportunity to clarify his position on the creation of the 45 districts.

Primarily, he emphasised the fact that the creation of the districts was a constitutional requirement in Article 47 subsections 1 to 7 of the 1992 constitution and the responsibility of the EC.

But the crux of the matter, he said, was subsection 6 of Article 47, which stipulated that “Where the boundaries of a constituency established under this article are altered as a result of a review, the alteration shall come into effect upon the next dissolution of Parliament.”

The newly created constituencies, therefore, would only take effect upon the dissolution of the existing parliament, that is, at midnight on January 7, 2012, he explained.

On the formula for the creation of constituencies, Dr Afari-Gyan produced a list to demonstrate what the EC had done.

With the constitutional guidelines of using boundaries, population, and the prescription that no constituency should fall within more than one region, the EC, based on the results of the population Census of 2010 had given a single weight of one to land size and a weight of nine to population.

The total population of a region, representing a weight of nine and the total land size representing a weight of one, were then put together to give a total weight of 10 and that was used in determining each regions share of the newly created constituencies.

Dr Afari-Gyan was of the view that think tanks who were criticizing this formula ought to propose better alternatives or stop criticising.

But regardless of all the threats and criticisms, he emphasized the fact that he was resolute, and would not allow any pressure to let him renege on his constitutional obligation.

Dealing with the perception that he was rushing in the creation of districts and the fact that he was doing so to favour a party, Dr Afari-Gyan said in the light of the fact that the census results were only released this year, the EC had no choice with its constitutional mandate of creating constituencies after a census.

Moreover, he pointed out, in the quotas of seats out of the newly created districts for each region, the Volta Region had three, while the Ashanti Region had eight.

Dr Afari-Gyan also used the lecture to advocate vigilance on the part of all Ghanaians in the electoral processes, despite the fact that the country had come a long way in its voter registration systems.

With the biometric registration, a cleaner register was assured.

He asked all to engage in the exhibition of the register, which is currently ongoing.

The senior Scholar in Residence, IDEG, Prof Kwame Ninsin, said although challenges persisted, the obligation on all Ghanaians was not to fight but continue with the dialogue.