In what appears to be a rebuttal, the IMANI Center for Policy insist that the Electoral Commission (EC) disenfranchised the people of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi and Lipke (SALL Residents) by not allowing them to vote in the 2020 parliamentary elections.
In a statement hours after the EC denied the think tank’s assertion, IMANI President Franklin Cudjoe said the Commission is being dishonest with the facts, as he made references to a recent admission by the EC’s lawyer about the situation.
Read Also: EC Denies Disenfranchising SALL Residents, Says IMANI’s Claims Baseless
“The exclusion of voters in the SALL Traditional Areas from voting in the election for a Member of Parliament was a flagrant violation of the right to vote of the said voters, which amounts to being disenfranchised,” Franklin Cudjoe said.
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Although the EC had blamed its inability to allow residents in SALL (now the Guan constituency) to vote on parliamentary recess at the time, Franklin Cudjoe said he found that unbelievable.
“Here again, it is incredible that the Commission does not appreciate that changes in the boundaries of constituencies are not just a matter of a letter from a Ministry but are to be consistent with article 47(5) of the Constitution,” he said, calling Jean Mensa’s administration “incompetent.”
“The 14th May 2024 statement of the Electoral Commission is not only brazenly dishonest but puts on stark display to the whole world the gross incompetence of the Jean Mensah -led Electoral Commission. The unconstitutional and illegal actions of the Commission must be constantly exposed for the sake of upholding our democracy and we will not relent in our commitment to doing just that,” the statement said.
The C.I. for the creation of the Guan constituency for residents of SALL was only laid in Parliament in November 2023, three years after the 2020 elections, leaving residents there without parliamentary representation.
