Members of the West Mamprusi municipal assembly in the North East Region have called for the Walewale constituency to be divided into 3 or 4 distinct parliamentary constituencies.

At a press briefing in Walewale, the Presiding Officer of the Assembly, Sebiyam Ibrahim, stated that splitting the current constituency into 3 or 4 would make development planning easy and allocation of resources efficient.

“By splitting the current constituency into three will make the government planning easy and also make grass-root participation in local government very effective,” he said.

The Walewale constituency is said to be the largest in the North East Region as it comprises nine villages with a current population of 121,117 and a total land size of 2610.44sqkm.

Sebiyam Ibrahim explained the total land size coupled with the increased population has rendered activities of governance practically challenging.

“With the electoral commission’s recent registration, the figures have exceeded what a constituency should even have, as the figure is over 151,” he said.

He explained that the situation has created a political disillusion among members of most communities who feel neglected and cut off from political participation.

“If you look at supervision and monitoring of projects, it becomes increasingly difficult for staff to move round to supervise projects within a short period of time,” he noted.

“Sometimes it is even difficult to collect and send data to the appropriate quarters when it is demanded, simply because of the vast nature of the municipality coupled with road structures and networks,” he added.

The Presiding Officer is reported to stated that assembly members from other communities have in the past complained about the difficulty in accessing the service centres in Walewale.

He believes this split will ensure that all government policies and programmes sent down to the rural folk reach them.

He, therefore, on behalf of the Assembly,  appealed to President Nana Akufo-Addo and the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Madam Jean Mensa to give the demand considerable attention and to act on it.

“We are therefore appealing to the EC, the Government and all those who matter to assist in getting the West Mamprusi municipality split into three constituencies for effective governance, and effective participation of rural folks,” he said.