Ghana’s election management body, the Electoral Commission (EC) is insisting its innocence in the disenfranchisement of the people of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi, and Lipke (SALL) in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
This follows an accusation by a section of the public blaming the Commission for disallowing the constituents to vote. One of such, is president of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe.
In successive publications, Mr. Cudjoe has chastised the Commission for disenfranchising the SALL people, a situation a US-based Ghanaian lawyer, Stephen Kwaku Asare, has described as the “cardinal sin of the 8th Parliament.”
But the Commission has dismissed the allegations by the IMANI President, claiming that Parliament should rather be blamed for SALL’s inability to get a representation in the House of Legislature.
It will be recalled that on December 6, 2020, a day before the general election, the EC directed that residents in the SALL areas could only vote in the presidential election.
Since then, the constituents have been without representation in Parliament.
But the Deputy Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Dr. Eric Bossman Asare, has said the institution to blame for the mishap is Parliament and not the EC.
“If you want someone to blame for that process, [it should be] the parliament. The time the Parliament began the process of creating the LI that created Guan, they should have known that it wasn’t possible that a constituency would be created for them to vote in the Parliamentary election,” he said on Accra-based JoyNews Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
“Clearly, anyone who blames the EC for what happened in the Guan – for them not electing a member of Parliament – the person doesn’t understand the processes of Parliament,” he added.
EC replies Franklin Cudjoe over allegations of disenfranchising SALL electorates
