Parliament ratifies Unit Committee Regulations

PAGE 12, NOV 24, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah
PARLIAMENT yesterday adopted the report of the Subsidiary Legislation Committee and ratified the Unit Committee Regulations, 2010 (C.I. 68).
By that, the number of members of the unit committees has been reduced from the current 15 to five to ensure more competitive district level elections in the country.
The Chairman of the committee, Mr Kwame Osei-Prempeh, who moved the motion for the adoption of the committee’s report, said the L.I. would make elections at the district level cost-effective, manageable and efficient.
“The committee is satisfied that the proposed instrument conforms to the requirements of the Constitution and relevant laws on the district level elections in the country,” he said.
He said it was for the purpose of ensuring consistency and conformity with the laws of the unit committee elections in the country that the instrument had been laid before the House.
Mr Osei-Prempeh said the instrument, apart from reducing the membership of the unit committees from 15 to five, also sought to liberalise the mounting of election platforms.
He said the committee noted that over the years there had been complaints by contestants of the unit committee elections in respect of the mounting of platforms.
He said the concern had been that the Electoral Commission had not been able to adequately offer platforms to candidates to communicate their messages to the electorates.
He said the liberalisation of platforms would, therefore, create a healthy competition necessary for the deepening of grass-root democracy and good governance.
The MP for Weija, Ms Sherry Ayorkor Botchwey, said the adoption of the C.I. was beneficial, since it would raise the electoral areas in her constituency, which is the largest in the country, from four to 22.
She said the Mallam Electoral Area, which has 98 polling stations, would now have 13 electoral areas, instead of one.
She said it was a good piece of news, as assembly members manning such big areas had suffered for far too long
Ms Botchwey stressed the need for the creation of more polling stations to encourage more people to vote during elections.