The Electoral Commission has reaffirmed its stance regarding the directive it issued on December 6, 2020, regarding the exclusion of Santrokofi, Apkafu, Lolobi, and Lipke (SALL) areas from that year's parliamentary elections.

According to the Commission, they were only upholding their constitutional obligation.

In a press statement released on May 16, the Commission clarified that its directive was in accordance with Act 936, which prohibits individuals from simultaneously serving on multiple District Assemblies.

"That situation was not the creation of the Electoral Commission. The Commission did not create the Guan District neither was it consulted when the decision was taken to create the Guan District. The Commission did not and does not determine the calendar of Parliament."

The statement sought to address concerns raised about the Commission's directive, particularly regarding the voting rights of residents in the Guan District as argued by President of IMANI Africa, Franklin Cudjoe.

Mr Cudjoe has accused the EC of being insensitive to the fact that the newly created Guan constituency has no representative in the 8th Parliament of the 4th Republic.

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According to Mr. Cudjoe, the Electoral Commission needs to accept responsibility and apologise to SALL residents instead of defending its action when it must focus on resolving challenges confronting the ongoing limited voters registration exercise.

"I don't even understand them. You are in the middle of organising a limited voter registration exercise, you are having problems and we don't even want to talk about that because people will think we are always on your neck; and you are making mistakes every day and night, changing figures," he told JoyNews.

He insisted that the Commission is responsible for the current predicament of electorates there being without a parliamentary representation.

But the Commission says the creation of the constituency was a process that started in Parliament, adding that there is no way it could have had a say in the process until it was brought to it for its action.

The Commission emphasised that failure to implement the directive would have resulted in a violation of the law, potentially compromising the integrity of the electoral process.

• Read also: ‘Was it my great grandfathers who disenfranchised the SALL residents?’ – Angry Franklin Cudjoe asks EC

"The Commission's statement of 6th December 2020 was a constitutional duty which the Commission was bound by law to perform. Had the Commission failed to do so and left residents of the Guan District to vote for an MP in the Jasikan District/ Buem Constituency, the election of the MP for the Buem Constituency would have been in violation of an Act of Parliament, Act 936, as the MP would have illegally become a member of more than one District Assembly, the Guan District Assembly and the Jasikan District Assembly."

On the back of this, the EC explained that "It is therefore disingenuous for anyone to suggest that, under the circumstances outlined, that the Commission in performing its constitutional duty, disenfranchised
the good people of SALL/ Guan District."