The Electoral Commission(EC) has submitted the Constitutional Instrument(CI) on assembly elections to the Attorney General\u2019s Department for advice.<\/p>\n
This was revealed by the Special Committee on Assembly Elections.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”RzXCrFomHOiy5coZ0iIJRnZMrHmsvmG1″]An aspirant for the Effutu constituency in the Central Region, Benjamin Eyi Mensah dragged the EC<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>to court after he was denied the opportunity to\u00a0file his nomination despite meeting all conditions to contest.<\/p>\n Justice William Atuguba ruled in favour of the fisherman and declared the impending election “unconstitutional.”<\/p>\n The EC subsequently cancelled the local polls which was\u00a0scheduled for March 3, 2015 after the Supreme Court ordered it to do so.<\/p>\n A seven member committee was subsequently set up to give the EC some recommendations on the next elections.<\/p>\n Parliament is yet to adopt the report submitted by the Committee.<\/p>\n The report was laid before Parliament on Tuesday and its likely to be debated on Thursday.<\/p>\n Release funds for new elections<\/strong><\/p>\n The EC\u00a0is said to have spent about GHC317 million on the abortive District Assembly elections.<\/p>\n Their decision to\u00a0spend that amount on botched elections was criticised by many people.<\/p>\n The Vice President, Paa Kwesi Arthur expressed worry<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>over the wastage of state funds on the cancelled polls, saying the situation will cause the state millions of cedis.<\/p>\n The Committee has however ordered the Finance Minister to “release funds” for the conduct of another elections”<\/p>\n A press statement issued by the committee instructed the Minister to do so\u00a0“as early as possible.”<\/p>\n Way Forward<\/strong><\/p>\n The Committee also recommended that the Constitutional Review Implementation Committee takes note of the vacuum created and make “the necessary recommendations to the House for the amendment of the Constitution.”<\/p>\n This,the Committee believes, will address “future occurrences” in the future.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Marian Efe Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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