New CI on district elections laid before Parliament

The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development on Friday laid a new Constitutional Instrument (CI) in Parliament, to guide the conduct of the district level elections, which is likely to be held in July.

The document, consistent with the 1992 Constitution, granting the rights for the conduct of and guidelines for the elections, has been branded CI 89.

The CI 89, fashioned around CI 75, which provides guidance for the conduct of Presidential and Parliamentary elections in the country, was laid on behalf of the Minster of Local Government and Rural Development, Alhaji Collins Dauda, by the Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Nii Osah Mills.

The Speaker of Parliament, Mr Edward Doe Adjaho, has referred the CI to the Parliamentary Select Committee on Subsidiary Legislation for consideration and report.

The laying of the Constitutional Instrument marks the beginning of the countdown to the district level elections, which should have been held on March 3, this year. And as the law requires, the CI can only mature and come into effect after 21 parliamentary sitting days after it has been laid.

The House is expected to rise for the Easter holidays on March 27, and reconvene in the second or third week in May and if that happens, it would mean that the CI would have been laid for only four days before the break.

Speaker Adjaho had convened a committee to strategize on the conduct of the district level election when the Supreme Court ordered the Electoral Commission (EC) to reopen nominations and fix a new date for the polls, after it (Supreme Court) had ruled that the holding of the elections on March 3 was unconstitutional.

The Committee has suggested that the Speaker recall members during the Easter Break to enable the CI to meet the mandatory requirement of 21 sitting days for the timely conduct of the elections by the Electoral Commission (EC).