News:
January 25, 2012
The minority spokesperson on Local Government, Hon. Maxwell Kofi Jumah, has threatened to sue the Mills administration in a bid to derail the government’s moves to create some 40 new districts across the country.
The former deputy local government minister under the Kufuor rule issued the threat in an interview with Citi News on Tuesday when MPs resumed sitting after a three-month break.
The government announced the creation of over 42 new districts last year, prompting speculations that the Electoral Commission was also planning to create 30 new constituencies.
Late last year, the government, however, failed to secure Parliamentary approval for the Legislative Instruments it sent to the House to give legislative backing to the new local authorities, after objections from the minority side.
After Tuesday’s sitting, Hon Jumah, without providing proof, told Citi News he has evidence to prove the Mills-led administration is colluding with the electoral commission to rig the December general elections.
“I have the figure that some of those new districts don’t have the required numbers set by law – the 75,000. Some are as low as 4,000 for them to qualify to be districts,” Jumah argued.
He added: “By so doing, forcing the hand of the Electoral Commission to create constituencies to favour the NDC government, so my anger is first to the government for attempting to gerrymander the constituencies and secondly the Electoral Commission for being part of that grand scheme to manipulate census figures to create phantom constituencies.
“It wouldn’t happen because I’ve done my research for all the 42 [districts] that they are attempting to put up and I’ve gone through the constitution, Act 462 and all the other relevant laws and none of them qualify to be. I’ll take all of them to court and throw all of them out. ”
Source: citifmonline. com