The Director of Legon Centre for International Affairs, Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, has expressed worry over failure by the political actors to explain succinctly the need for the creation of 45 new constituencies ahead of the 2012 General elections. Speaking at the Eminent Citizens Lecture organized by the Institute of Democratic Governance (IDEG), Wednesday, Prof Mensa-Bonsu chided politicians and other social commentators for generating heat instead of light, on a matter so crucial to the peace and democratic stability in the country. According to her, she is yet to hear salient argument as to how many Ghanaians must be represented by a Member of Parliament in a single constituency, insisting the practice in which one MP can win by some 15,000 votes and another lose by some 20,000 votes does not augur well for the principle of equal value for equal votes. Whilst conceding that the constitution is silent on the number of people expected to be represented by a Member of Parliament, she said the country must begin to put in place appropriate rules and regulations to guide it in that direction. Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu also lamented the closing up of public debate with only a few voices getting heard on many platforms. She attributed that phenomenon to what she said is the unfortunate labeling of political opinions leaving people with no option than to remain out of the public debate for fear of being labeled. “Democracy is about participation so if people can take cover,” for fear of being labeled, “then we are much poorer.” “If one person repeats his opinions on three separate radio stations, it does not make it three opinions,” she stated. She called for more tolerance among the various political groupings in the country. The IDEG Eminent Citizens Lecture is under the theme: “Deepening Dialogue on National values - Peace and Unity." His Eminence Peter Cardinal Appiah Turkson, President of the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace at the Vatican, Rome, and a panelist on the Eminent Citizens lecture also admonished politicians to work for peace. He said to always pray for peace and not to work towards it, is to ridicule God. Play the attached audio for excerpts of the statement from the Prof.