The EC, Dr. Afari Djan On A 'Suicide Mission'?

Dr Afari Djan has used colorful words to describe those who have criticized his idea of creating 45 constituencies to add to the existing 230 as USELESS and RABBLE ROUSERS and that is not how any head of a branch in any democratic society should respond to a dialogue or a discourse to find the best option on an issue that has the potential to plunge the country into chaos if not handled properly.

We woke up on the morning of September 14th to read the headline of the leading story in the Ghanaweb forum; "Critics of new constituencies are "rabble rousers" - Dr. Afari Gyan". Dr Afari Djan said that if the 45 constituencies are not created, some people will not be represented in Parliament.

"Dr. Afari-Gyan said every citizen has to be represented in parliament hence the Commission’s decision to include the new constituencies in the upcoming elections. He said those who are asking for the postponement should go and justify it to residents of the newly constituencies." Dr Afari Djan is trying too hard to justify the creation of the 45 constituencies it has prolonged his argument to mumbo-jumbo status and as an Akan, Dr Afari Djan might be familiar with this Akan proverb; "MPAE TENTEN DANE DUA BO" to wit, 'LONG PRAYERS CAN TURN INTO A CURSE' and that is where the issue of the new45 constituencies is heading to, A BIG CURSE.

Dr Afari Djan, you know that is not true and you are using scare tactics to augument your point.The EC has up to June 2013 to create the 45 constituencies. If he waits till after the election in December and creates the 45 constituencies in Feb. or March,everybody in the country will be represented in Parliament with the 230 constituencies in use instead of using scare tactics to get your way. You are acting like a Dictator whose powers are absolute and nobody should challenge your subjective parochial interest in this matter. You don't have to create the 45 new constituencies now, you have options. The constitution gives you the right to create the said constituencies and you have 12 months from the day of publication of the census results to create the new constituencies which does not expire until the beginning of June of 2013 so why the rush to create the new constituencies when we are already having problems with the Biometric registration voters list? Dr Djan, don't you think we should solve or correct the Biometric registration list problems to have confidence that the upcoming election will be free and fair to all interested parties before we create other problems?

We already have a voters registration list where for some reasons the NPP stronghold of Asahanti region has some voters who have registered and can't find their names in many constituencies and the reason given is that, wrong codes were used and those people might end up during voting day of December 7th being disenfranchised. How convenient it is only in Asahanti region where some registration centers have 600 to 700 people whose names are not on the list and you seem not to be concerned about that but bent on creating new problems instead of solving the existing ones.

Dr. Afari Djan,the time and logistic factors are not conducive for the 45 constituencies to be created and implemented for the 2012 elections with about 85 more days to go without creating chaos. Nobody is going to be hurt if we don't have 275 MP's in Parliament in 2013.The EC is not contractually obligated to create the 45 constituencies and implement it in the 2012 elections, that is not the case. He has the option until May ending of next year to create these constituencies why can't we wait till after the elections and create the new constituencies and use it for the 2016 elections? There is no constitutional crisis that will crop up if we use this common sense idea instead of the hurriedly tended C1-78 in Parliament.

Dr. Afari Djan seems to have a personal interest to see to it that NDC has an advantage in winning the majority of the yet to be created 45 constituencies and in its giddiness to see to that, the EC has supervised the election of NDC candidates in the yet to be created constituencies.How can the Electoral Commission supervise NDC primaries in the yet to be created 45 constituencies when the law for its creation has not been passed? What kind of bonehead undertaking is that? It was unlawful for the EC to supervise it? Can Ghanaians walk with the truth sometimes instead of allowing our political parochial interest to blind us? Afari Djan has contravened the constitution by supervising elections in a yet to be created constituencies for one political party and he has to explain to Ghanaians why he did that knowing it was illegal.

Now touching on the 45 new constituencies, what formula did the EC use to carve out these constituencies? How did he give Volta region with less population compared to Central region with four new constituencies whilst Central region got only three new ones? Is this the representative government Afari Djan is talking about? How can Volata region with less population than Central region be given 26 constituencies and Central region with 22 constituencies when the 45 new constituencies take effect? At the moment, Votal region has 22 constituencies and Cental region has 19 despite the fact that Central region is more populous than Volta region.

To avoid the impending chaos that the creation of the 45 constituencies will bring with unintended problems, the EC should withdraw the C1-78 in Parliament now that its passing will trigger in the automatic creation of the 45 constituencies because of time and logistic factors OR we can go ahead with it and pass the law without implementing it, we have a precedent to support this argument.

Parliament in consultation with EC passed the ROPAL law in 2006 that gave Ghanaians abroad the right to vote in their various locals but due to finanacial and logistical problems, that law has not been implemented and despite the contribution disporians make to the vibrancy of Ghana's economy, 4 billion dollars per year, more than cocoa, gold and oil combined, we disporian Ghanaians have been disenfranchised but that is not a worry to Dr. Afari Djan.

Dr Afari Djan is almost 70 years old and he is on a 'suicide mission' with his closed mind idea of this 45 constituencies and he doesn't care if he takes Ghana with him to hell.

"MAKA A MAKA"

Justice Sarpong

Houston, Texas

(CARDINAL of TRUTH)