Creation of new regions: Brong Ahafo in perspective
Barring any hitch, the Brong Ahafo Region will be divided into three separate regions following the recommendation by the Justice Brobbey Commission to the President to create six more administrative regions for the country.
That will, however, materialise if all conditions stipulated under Article 5, Clause 6 are fulfilled after the Electoral Commission (EC) conducts a referendum on the subject matter.
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According to that clause, an issue referred for determination by referendum for the creation of a new region out of an existing region "shall not be taken to be determined by the referendum unless at least fifty per cent of the persons entitled to vote cast their votes at the referendum, and of the votes cast, at least eighty per cent were cast in favour of that issue".
It, therefore, comes as no wonder that President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo told the chiefs who had submitted petitions for the creation of new regions out of the Brong Ahafo Region "to adopt a house-to-house approach to convince their people to come out to vote in their numbers during the upcoming referenda".
Proposed new regions in Brong Ahafo
Out of the proposed six new regions, two of them are in Brong Ahafo. They are the Ahafo Region and the Bono East Region.
With the creation of two new districts recently, the Brong Ahafo Region now has 29 administrative districts.
Should the proposed creation of the two additional regions occur, the area that would be left with Sunyani as its capital would have 12 districts.
They are Sunyani Municipal, Sunyani West District, Wenchi Municipality, Dormaa Municipality, Dormaa East District, Dormaa West District, Berekum Municipality, Berekum West District, Jaman South District, Jaman North District, Tain District and Banda District.
Those that would form the Ahafo Region are Tano North District, Tano South Municipality, Asutifi North District, Asutifi South District, Asunafo North Municipality and Asunafo South District.
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The Bono East Region will be comprised of the Techiman Municipality, Techiman North District, Nkoranza Municipality, Kintampo Municipality, Kintampo South District, Nkoranza North District, Atebubu-Amanten Municipality, Sene East District, Sene West, Pru East District and Pru West District.
Sensitisation
For the past one year, a lot of groups championing the creation of new regions in the two areas have intensified their campaigns to sensitise the people to processes involved in the creation of new regions.
During the visit of members of the Justice Brobbey Commission to the two areas early in the year, they were met with an enthusiastic crowd in the various communities with some of them wearing branded T-shirts and paraphernalia.
Schoolchildren lined up on the shoulders of streets while the youth danced, chanted and praised the government for its commitment towards the fulfilment of its campaign promise to create more regions.
When President Akufo-Addo toured the Brong Ahafo Region recently, it was clear that chiefs in the region had already started preparing for the two proposed regions to come into fruition.
The President had to meet chiefs in the Bono East Region area at Busunya in the Nkoranza North District, those in the Ahafo section at Goaso and the rest of the chiefs in Sunyani.