Call Off The Akuse-Natriku Elections In The Interest Of Peace --- Krobo Youth Tells EC

Wednesday August 26, 2015, Odumase-Krobo: The youth of Krobo say they are not comfortable with the decision by the Electoral Commission (EC) to conduct the September 1 assembly election in Akuse-Natriku under the Shai Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region instead of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region.

They are therefore calling on the EC to hold on with the election in the interest of peace.

They said, they are surprised that Akuse Natriku, (a core part of Lower Manya Krobo Municipality) and which is also surrounded by other electoral areas in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region is being treated as part of the Shai-Osudoku District of the Greater Accra Region, making it a virtual island.

EC’s action not only amount to a change of boundaries between the Eastern and Greater Accra Regions which contravenes the provisions in Article 5 of the 1992 constitution but it shows gross disregards for the authority of the Highest Court of the land, the Supreme Court, which declared the electoral area in question and, indeed, the whole of Akuse a part of the Eastern Region (Lower Manya Krobo specifically).

Spokesperson for Kloma Gbi, Hilary Saki Kodji said “It is surprising that upon all this appeals (and agitation) over the illegal change of regional boundaries not even the EC or the Local Government Ministry is pausing for once to listen to our grievances. When public institutions like these act with impunity, they only turn to encourage aggression particularly when other institutions and persons who should act as check on them also look on with indifference. It is sad to watch the laws of the land applied selectively”.

Background

Akuse-Natriku, one of the electoral areas which make up the Akuse Township was omitted in the local level election which was held in the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in December, 2013. The election was suspended for three (3) years (in December 2010) following a boundary dispute over whether Akuse and its surrounding communities belong to the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region or the Shai Osudoku District (formerly Dangme West) of the Greater Accra Region.

The Legislative Instrument (LI) which sought to illegally align the affected electoral areas from Lower Manya to Shai Osudoku was however declared as procedurally flawed by a nine member panel of the Supreme Court on June 13, 2012, thereby retaining the electoral areas in the former and paving the way for the election which was held in December 2013. Natriku was however omitted and all efforts to get the EC to explain its action have yielded no result. Unfortunately, EC is about conducting the elections in the area but under the Shai-Osudoku District, an action the people of Manya Krobo are not taking kindly.