CI 78: Parliament Rejects Report...CI To Be Passed Into Law

Parliament has rejected the Subsidiary Legislation Committee's recommendation that the Constitutional Instrument (CI) 78 should be annulled. This thus paves way for the CI that gives legal backing for the creation of 45 new constituencies to be passed into law by close of day Tuesday, October 2. The Subsidiary Legislation of Parliament had earlier identified several anomalies in the CI which was presented before Parliament some weeks ago. Majority of the committee members had therefore called for the document to be annulled because some people will be disenfranchised if the CI 78 is allowed to mature. According to the committee's report, over 26 electoral areas created under the Local Government (Creation of New District Electoral Areas and Designation of Units Instrument, 2010 (LI 1983), were not captured in the CI 78 while some non-existent constituencies have been added to the document. The Committee explained that the exclusion of the electoral areas affected 34 constituencies across all the 10 regions of the country. But Members of Parliament, on Monday, engaged in a lengthy debate on the controversial CI 78 report. After a debate in the law house, 56 members notably from the Minority side voted for the house to adhere to the recommendations of the report whiles 81 members notably from the Majority side voted for the report to be rejected. By implication, the CI 78 which was laid before Parliament some 20 days ago will fully mature tomorrow Tuesday October 2, giving way for the creation of the 45 new constituencies ahead of the 2012 elections. The CI 78 was laid by the Electoral Commission (EC) on September 4, 2012 and was expected to mature into law on October 2 after the mandatory 21 parliamentary sitting days. The document has been withdrawn on four different occasions from Parliament due to errors sighted by members of the House.