NPP Only Reads Convenient Law - Haruna Iddrisu

Minister of communications, Haruna Iddrisu is accusing the opposition New Patriotic Party(NPP), of bending sections of the constitution to suit their cause.

He says the NPP for some time have only been interested in portions of the law that are convenient to their aspirations.

‘’The NPP are only reading convenient law’’, he said.

The NDC Tamale South member of parliament who spoke on Gold Power Drive on Tuesday was responding to the law suit issued against the Electoral Commission(EC), by former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Ayikoi Otoo and some leading members of the NPP for the creation of 45 new constituencies.

The EC boss Dr. Kwadwo Afari-Gyan last week told Parliament in a closed-door session that following the recent release of the final figures of the 2010 population census, his outfit will add 45 new constituencies. He said measures have been put in place to ensure that no region is discriminated against during the creation of the districts.

However, lawyer Otoo said the EC’s move is illegal because there is a case pending before the High Court challenging the same issue. “Under our Constitution – Article 47 (3) provides that the boundaries of each constituency must be such that the number of inhabitants in a constituency is as nearly as possible equal to the population quota. It is our view that this population quota is not being adequately addressed,” he said.

“Now that the census figures have been published, you’ll find out that Greater Accra is the highest in terms of voter population. Yet, if you look at the number of constituencies we have in Accra it is only 27. If the population is well taken into account we think that Greater Accra should be going anywhere near 40 instead of 27,” Lawyer Otoo added.

But the communications minister says the NPP only believes that what they say is right and what they do is lawful.

‘’Very interesting times in Ghana, for the New Patriotic Party what they do is right, what others do even the way they do it makes it difficult, its only interesting. In 2004, the NPP government of president Kufuor created 30 additional new constituencies to add to the existing 200 and CI46 a constitutional instrument was accordingly laid in parliament in passed into law’’.

He noted: ‘’if you read article 47(3)(4), it says that the boundaries of each constituency shall be such that the number of inhabitants in the constituency is as nearly as possible equal to the population. 47(4) says that for the purpose of clause (3), the number of inhabitants of a constituency may be greater or less than the population quota. So it doesn’t mean that for every constituency created the population must be the same’’.