Demo Rocks Electoral Commission

Members of the Eastern Youth Network (EYN), a pressure youth group in the Eastern Region made up of youth from diverse political backgrounds, yesterday staged a massive demonstration in the regional capital, Koforidua against the Electoral Commission (EC�s) decision to go ahead and create the controversial 45 new constituencies despite pleas from civil society groups to suspend the creation for the meantime. The youth carried placards with inscriptions, some of which read �We Don�t Want Kenya In Ghana�, �Peace Not For Sale, EC�, �We Want Peace In Ghana�, �Respect Our Peace, EC�, �Why The Rush, EC�, �45 Constituencies Can Wait�, �EC, Don�t Destroy Ghana� and �No Yaw Boateng Gyan�, as they moved from Efiduase traffic light to the regional office of EC at the ministries where they delivered their petition to the deputy regional chairman to be forwarded to the chairman of the EC, Kwadwo Afari Gyan. The youth, in a petition copied to chairman of the EC, said the creation of the new constituency had generated intense controversy and divided the country and that should tell the people of Ghana that its implementation before the general elections on December 7 could spark disturbances in the country. �This action by the EC has the propensity to derail the democratic gains we have made as a nation over the last 20 years, especially due to its closeness to the December polls,� Nana Asafu-Adjei, president of the youth network, noted. The youth also said they found it extremely difficult to understand why the EC could supervise parliamentary primaries by the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) in the proposed new constituencies while the Constitutional Instrument (CI) had not even been laid before parliament and passed into law. �We deem it preposterous and a grievous illegality to find the Electoral Commission working in tandem with the political party in power to conduct primaries in non-existing constituencies which is against the Constitution of the Republic of Ghana,� the group noted. According to the groups, the Centre for Democratic, the Trades Union Congress (TUC), some religious organizations including the Presbyterian Church as well as the main opposition party, New Patriotic Party (NPP), had all called on the EC to suspend the creation of the additional 45 constituencies because they all foresaw that the creation could lead to problems in the general elections in December. The group therefore asked the EC to critically analyse what all these groups of people were saying before it took any action. The youth reminded the EC to learn lessons from countries like Kenya and La Cote d�Ivoire where their countries were thrown into a state of chaos and anarchy during elections, after the electoral commissions in those countries refused to listen to good counsel from sections of the society. �We the members of the Eastern Youth Network wish to state clearly our stand on this controversial issue by calling on the EC to listen to wise counsel and suspend the creation of the new 45 constituencies till after the general elections in December this year since as future leaders of this country, we have a stake in the peace and stability of our motherland since we cannot lead the country without peace and stability,� the group noted. Meanwhile, the same pressure group, at a press conference on Monday, supported the free secondary school education policy by the flag-bearer of the NPP and asked all youth as well as parents to vote for the party that would implement the free secondary school education to help develop the human resource base of the country and accelerate the development of the country.