EC: We Will Certainly Create 45 New Constituencies

The Electoral Commission has emphasised its decision to go ahead with the creation of additional 45 constituencies before the December elections, despite a court action against it. The creation of the constituencies would bring to 275 the total number of constituencies in the country. The EC was dragged to court to answer questions as to the method it is employing in the creation of these new constituencies. But the Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, said the Commission is proceeding with its legal mandate of creating constituencies as and when it is necessary. "It�s not a question of whether somebody likes it or doesn�t like it, I�m not at liberty to wait until next year before I do it so as soon as practicable, we will create the constituencies,� the electoral referee pointed out. He said this when the Electoral Commission led executives of all political parties of the two most controversial regions, Volta and Ashanti, to tour its �Strong Room� at the EC�s headquarters. The tour, however, is part of moves to demystify the secrecy surrounding the EC�s strong room where final results are collated, verified before it is released to the public. Interacting with the media after the tour, Dr. Afari-Gyan questioned �why should I wait until next year before I do it? We will do. We don�t just wake up and say the following constituencies have been created, we go through processes and even the names we give to the constituencies are not just forced on them.� He added: �We have to be careful, even the names that we give, sometimes they say there are three big towns here and the name of all the three should be in there etc, so it will be done but there is no rush but we will create the constituencies. �We�re in court, somebody says that the formula we use is bogus. Interestingly we used the same formula in 2004, it wasn�t bogus in 2004, but it is bogus in 2012?�