The communities in Ghana with no representation in Parliament

Article 47 (1) of the 1992 Constitution of Ghana states that Ghana shall be divided into as many constituencies for the purpose of election of Members of Parliament as the Electoral Commission may prescribe, and each constituency shall be represented by one Member of Parliament.

Yet, after the creation of the new regions in Ghana some communities namely Santrokofi, Akpafu, Lipke and Lolobi (SALL) traditional do not have representation in parliament.

What is more striking is that there have been little to no attempts by the government and the Electoral Commission to rectify this anomaly.

But why has the government failed to act? Is it because creating a new constituency or allowing the people of SALL to vote in their original constituency will tilt the balance of power in Parliament which will affect the government's ability to get the necessary approval from the house. Or is the explanation of the government that the people of SALL must essentially wait till 2024 to get representation in Parliament, right?

First let us explore how SALL was created

The Guan District made up of Santrofi, Akpafu, Lipke and Lolobi (SALL) in the Oti Region, was created following the Legislative Instrument laid in Parliament by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in 2019.

The district was previously part of the Hohoe Municipal, District Electoral Areas and Designation of Units Instrument, 2014 CI 85. However, the area was placed in the Oti Region in the Referendum (Creation of New Regions) Regulations 2018, CI 109 of November 30, 2018, as recommended by the Commission of Inquiry into the creation of the six new regions.

Consequently, Guan was made part of the Oti Region in the Oti Region Instrument 2019 CI 112 on February 2019. It was also included in the Jasikan District in the Oti Region as provided in the District Electoral Areas and Designation of Unit Assemblies. But now the SALL areas have been put together to form the Guan District.

Now, let us take a look at how SALL did not have representation in Parliament

The SALL communities were set to vote in the newly created Buem Constituency of the Oti Region, despite the resistance of two of the communities, Akpafu and Lolobi, who said they should not have been added to the newly created Oti region because they never petition to be part of it and they also voted against being part of the region in the December 27, 2018 referendum.

The Electoral Commission on the eve of the 2020 General Election, in a statement it issued, indicated that eligible voters in the Guan District (SALL traditional areas) will only take part in the presidential election, but not in the parliamentary election.

It explained that the voters could not vote in the parliamentary election in line with Article 47(2) which states that no constituency shall fall within more than one region.

“As a result of the creation of the Guan District Local Government (Guan District Assembly) Instrument, 2020 and pending the creation of the Guan Constituency, eligible voters in the Guan District will vote only in the Presidential Election but not in the Parliamentary Election in the Buem Constituency,” the statement read in part.

The Commission indicated that a new constituency will be set for the people of the Guan District to give them the opportunity to elect a Member of Parliament to represent them in the 8th Parliament before January 7, 2021.

According to the Ghana News Agency, the commission was not able to create the constituency in the Guan District because the Constitutional Instrument (CI) for the creation of the constituency could not have matured in time for SALL to have an MP in the 8th Parliament.

"If we had initiated the process in the 7th Parliament, the CI could not have matured. In that case, the process will have to start all over again in the 8th Parliament,” a source from the commission told the GNA.

What has the government said on SALL so far

The Attorney General, Godfred Yeboah Dame, speaking on the floor of parliament on March 4, 2022, stated that the surest way for the people of Santrokofi, Akpafu, Likpe and Lolobi (SALL) to have a representation in Ghana's 8th Parliament, is for a fresh election to be conducted in the Buem Constituency.

"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.

The government has not, however, taken any step to see this process through, to ensure that all Ghanaians rightly have a representation in Parliament. Yet we see the office of the government through the Office of the Attorney exploring all the legal means necessary to get the right representation for people in other constituencies.

Why has the government not rigorously taken up the matter of the representation of the people of SALL as it is doing in the case of the Assin North Constituency and the Jomoro Constituency, where the Members of Parliament there are deemed to have been illegally elected. Is it legal for Ghanaians not to have a representation in Parliament?

In response to the suggestion of the Attorney General, the co-chairman of the Joint Stirring Committee of the Akpafu and Lolobi Traditional Areas, Dr Joe Addae stated that it is wrong for Attorney General to call for re-election in Buem.

According to Dr Addae, SALL had a firm indication from the Supreme Court and the Electoral Commission that they would be voting as constituents of Hohoe during the Parliament Election, adding that SALL traditional areas had all their electoral process in Hohoe and so it will be wrong to ask them to vote in another constituency.

The posturing of the government and the seeming reluctance in fully taking up this issue has led to allegations that doing so might have some political consequences for the government given the previous voting history of the people of SALL should a re-election be done in Hohoe rather than Buem.

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