Last year I was one
of the people who felt the Electoral Commission should go ahead with the creating
of new constituencies though some section of the electorate thought otherwise. The
argument put forward for the EC not to go ahead with the creation of the new
constituencies has to do with the timing. Those people felt that with the
elections very close creating new constituencies may create chaos during the
elections. But the new constituencies were created and the elections held and
the elections results showed that those fears were unfounded.
I am, however, opposed
to creation of new districts in principle as specified by the constitution that
gave mandate to the EC to do so anytime the government creates new districts
based on the data from a national decennial census. Such constitutional mandates
for both the government and EC should be repealed. The government may argue
creating new district and constituencies is a way of strengthening local government
and deepening participatory democracy. But I think that this is hypocritical on
the part of government since local government and participatory democracy are
not enhanced by creating more districts and constituencies but strengthening
institutions and structures of local and national governments.
Newly created
districts will benefit from infrastructural development, but I ask the
question, should we create new districts before we develop those areas? It is
our right that our communities have good infrastructure whether or not they
come under new districts. And it is the government’s responsibility to ensure
these areas are developed. We should not make the government feel as if she is
doing as a favor by creating new districts and promising that they will develop
those districts through that. One should ask if governments are truly committed
to making local government work and supporting metropolitan, municipal and districts
developed the communities, why should she wait to create a new district before
investing in developing that district? Where does the money all of sudden come
from? Such act to me is insincere and a political strategy to keep the
citizenry at the mercy of the politician.
An MP of Ghana
basically has responsibilities to the Nation, constituency and party. Such responsibilities
according to the Ghanaian Parliaments includes exercising legislative powers to
the state through the introduction and passage of bills, explaining government
policies to his constituents and monitoring development projects in his constituency
and offering constructive criticism of the party’s policies. There is no
mention of the MP providing development to his constituency. The MPs are the
representatives of the people so is even our President. Does increasing the
number of MPs in Parliament enhances the quality of their work in parliament
and have positive effect on the electorate who put them there? If our argument
is that number of MPs in parliament should show a proportional representation
of the population, do we have to elect two presidents just because our
population has increased?
I believe that the
number of MPs should be fixed like the US House of Representatives. If this is
not done every ten years we will be forced by the constitution to keep on increasing
the number of MPs in our parliament. Increasing number of MPs will not improve
the quality and standard of living of our people but rather put a further burden
on government. Governments are quick to take on these new responsibilities but
are not ready to take the necessary actions that safeguard continuous access of
an increasing population to electricity, water, food, education, jobs and
shelter. Let’s watch whether these new MPs in the current parliament who came
as a result of the newly created constituencies will bring any difference to
the lives of their people.
Finally we are one
people and creating new districts only ends to bring sharp divisions along ethnic
and chieftain lines. We are all witnesses to what happens when governments creates
new district as to the situation of the district capitals and even boundary
lines. The act of re-demarcating boarders and creating new districts out of old
ones is a colonial tool to keep people in servitude to their masters. I think that what we need to do is empower our
assemblymen and women, unit committees and the chiefs so they can help mobilize
their people for development.
