[ 2012-06-23 ]

Azumah debunks criticism of gerrymandering
Wa, June 23, GNA -Mr. Dominic Azumah, a Minister
of State at the Office of the President, has said
the Government did not create the new districts to
favour the National Democratic Congress above any
other party in the December Polls.

But, he said, it adopted the same formula that was
used by the previous regime to create districts
between 2001 and 2008, therefore, its creation
could not driven by political expediency.

Mr. Azumah said this during an interaction with
reporters at Wa, after he with Mr. Elvis Afriyie-
Ankrah, a Deputy Minister of Local Government and
Rural Development, had visited two newly created
districts in the Upper West Region to assess their
preparedness for their inauguration next month.

The two districts have been carved out of the
Lawra and Nadowli districts with their
headquarters located at Nandom and Issa,
respectively.

He said the sheer size of some of the older
districts meant that they could not be overlooked
in the creation of districts as the government had
a clear objective to spread development to all
parts of the country.

“As long as people want development, you have to
have a way of meeting them if they qualify for
districts to be created in their areas, but it is
left to Ghanaians to place a ceiling on the number
of districts that can be created,” he said.

Mr. Afriyie-Ankrah said 120 areas applied for
districts but only 46 were created, pointing out
that, districts served as growth pillars for
development and the people could not be denied if
their areas qualified.

Mr. Kale Cesar, Upper West Regional Deputy
Minister, said those who were criticizing the
creation of the districts were not being
charitable to those demanding the districts,
saying there should be no question of ceiling as
the population of the country continued to grow.

Source - GNA

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