A former Attorney General, Dr Obed Yao Asamoah, as well as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the Buem constituency, Kofi Adams, have heavily descended on the Attorney General (AG) Godfred Yeboah Dame, for calling for freshpolls in the Buem Constituency, to cover residents of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lolobi and Likpe (SALL).
Dr Asamoah, rather wants the creation of a Guan Constituency for residents of SALL, insisting that fresh polls in the Buem Constituency to cover SALL residents, is not the panacea to parliamentary representation concerns in the areas.
The Buem MP, was hard-hitting, describing as “a joke” the proposal by the Attorney-General’s call for fresh parliamentary election to be held in his Constituency.
According to him, the proposal shows that the Akufo-Addo government, has failed in addressing the country’s local government structure challenge, especially concerning the matter of the disenfranchised SALL residents.
He described both the Attorney-General and Electoral Commission as incompetent.
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Already, residents, chiefs and other local government authorities, have kicked against the proposals.
Speaking to Citi FM, Dr Asamoah, who is from Likpe, couldn’t fathom why the Attorney General, would make such a suggestion when the communities in question are clearly out of the Buem jurisdiction.
“I don’t think I appreciate what he is proposing. If there is a re-run for the parliamentary elections in Buem, and SALL is not part Of Buem, how is that going to take place? Unless they are proposing that they are going to make SALL part of Buem which I don’t think is justified.”
The one-time Minister for Justice, thus implored the government to rather channel its resources into the creation of a new Guan Constituency for the people of SALL.
“I don’t understand what they are trying to propose. The people of SALL are in Guan right now, and the Guan District that was created is for the people of SALL so what is needed now is for a constituency so that by the next election they can have a parliamentary candidate; that’s for me is more feasible”, Dr. Obed Yao Asamoah intimated.
The people of SALLdid not vote in the parliamentary elections, but participated in the presidential polls ahead of the creation of their Guan constituency.
This led to concerns that they had been disenfranchised and did not have representation in Parliament.
Answering questions in Parliament on Wednesday, March 9, 2022, the Attorney General indicated that the constitutional instrument needed to create the new Guan constituency is with the Electoral Commission and will be laid in the house soon.
“So the way to go if we want to achieve representation of the SALL areas in the lifetime of this Parliament, is to ensure that proper areas that have been allocated within proper constituencies duly created by law are given their right to vote in proper elections properly conducted to duly elect Members of Parliament.
Thus, a proper election ought to be conducted to elect a Member of Parliament to represent all of the people in the Buem constituency, as mandated by C. I. 128.,” he said.
Mr Dame felt the fresh polls in Buem could address this concern.
“The way to go if we want to achieve representation of the SALL areas in the lifetime of this Parliament, is to ensure that proper areas that have been allocated within proper constituencies duly created by law are given their right to vote in proper elections properly conducted to duly elect Members of Parliament. Thus, a proper election ought to be conducted to elect a Member of Parliament to represent all of the people in the Buem constituency, as mandated by C. I. 128,” he said.
“As far as I am concerned, there is no law that places SALL under the Buem Constituency. It is only C.I 128 that places SALL under the Buem Constituency.”
The Buem MP, Kofi Adams, however, criticised this suggestion and described it as a joke.
According to him, the proposal shows that the Akufo-Addo government has failed in addressing the country’s local government structure challenge, especially concerning the matter of the disenfranchised SALL residents.
“This clearly shows that we have an incompetent government that was bestowed on us. This is not the first time we have had to amend our constituency boundaries. In each of those cases, we have never seen this level of incompetence. But this shows that the government has been incompetent in handling our local government creation of the constituency. But for what he said, I see it as a joke. He was evasive with the real issues that came from his answers. But I am ready for any elections in Buem,” he said.
Mr Adams, said he was ready to contest in another election in the area.
According to him, it would not be a challenge for him if the government insists that another election must be conducted to rectify the anomaly of some traditional residents in the Guan district being denied the opportunity to vote in the Buem constituency parliamentary elections.
According to him, the government is failing to address the main challenge which is the creation of the new Guan district which could lead to the creation of an additional constituency to Buem.
“I am ready for any election any day that will include all these four traditional areas in Buem if that is what government is proposing. I don’t mind if they say the law says that is what must be done. But clearly that is not the way it should be, that is not the solution. The question is for you to present the C.I. for the creation of the Guan constituency now,” he said.
