EC to Create New Constituencies for 2024 election-Dr Bossman reveals

The Electoral Commission (EC) has disclosed that it will initiate processes leading to the creation of new constituencies including the Guan District when Parliament resumes from recess in October 2023.

Deputy Commissioner of the EC in charge of Corporate Services, Dr Eric Bossman Asare, revealed this in an interview with TV 3 on Monday, September 11, 2023, monitored by EXPRESSNEWSGHANA.

Dr. Bossman was reacting to issues in the media about the pending Limited Voter Registration exercises, which are scheduled to take off on Tuesday, September 12, at the District offices of the Electoral Commission across the country.

While responding to a question by the TV3 Morning Host, Roland Walker, the Deputy EC Commissioner said the Guan District will get a new Constituency as part of the Commission as the process is being initiated to create some new constituencies for the 2024 elections.

“We are in the process of creating some new constituencies and Guan District is one of them. If not because parliament is on recess, we should have started the process in parliament,” Dr Bossman said.

Dr. Bossman Asare however failed to mention how many additional new constituencies would be created alongside the Guan Constituency.

However, information picked by EXPRESSNEWSGHANA, indicated that the EC is considering 25 new constituencies as part of the process leading to the 2024, general elections.

Currently, the country has 275 constituencies and the two major political groups, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) have 137 each with an Independent MP for Fomena.

Parliament went on recess on July 29, 2023, and is expected to be resuming in October, for the 2024 budget.

At the 2020 general election, the EC could not hold elections for registered voters in the Guan District to elect a Member of Parliament due to the absence of a constituency.

The Commission claimed at the time that it was unable to create the Constituency because the C. I needed to create a constituency that could not mature in the 7th Parliament.

The Constitutional Instrument (CI) for amendment of the creation of a Constituency has to be laid and stay in Parliament for 21 sitting days and come into force if 2/3s of the Members of Parliament allow its journey. It is after the passage of the amended C I that the EC can contemplate demarcating the country for more constituencies.

Article 42 of the 1992 constitution of Ghana states, “Every citizen of Ghana of eighteen years of age or above and of sound mind has the right to vote and is entitled to be registered as a voter for the purposes of public elections and referenda.’

Article 45 (a) and (b) state, that “the Electoral Commission shall have the following functions, (a) to compile the register of voters and revise it at such periods as may be determined by law and (b) to demarcate the electoral boundaries for both national and local government elections.”