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8th February, 2012
Parliament Working On Local Govt Act 462
Parliament is seeking to amend the Local Government Act ,1993(Act 462) to enable the Electoral Commission to remove the geographical limitation on the declaration of an area as a municipality.
The amendment would ensure that all tiers of assemblies in the country are differentiated by a common denominator which is population.
The Local Government (Amendment)Bill 2012 was laid before Parliament on Thursday Ffebruary,2 and referred to the Committee on Local Government and Rural development for consideration and report.
The report of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development on the amendment bill, said if the decision was effected, the population factor could be used to define a municipality so as to be consistent with the definitions of Districts and Metropolitan Areas.
The report said the amendment was being proposed to create eight new municipalities and also cater for eight existing ones created in 2004 and 2007 to streamline issues.
According to the report, if the amendment was not made a number of municipalities created in 2004 and 2007 could be declared null and void, because these municipalities were not single compact settlement and did not fulfill the strict legal requirements and therefore rendered illegal.
“Until section 1(4) (a) (11)is amended to bring the law in harmony with existing reality, these municipalities will continue to be seen to be illegal,”the report said.
Currently the key and consistent distinction among the three tiers of Assemblies-the Metropolitan, Municipal and District is the population.
According to the report, the degree of geographical dispersion was not consistent in the status of assemblies in the country adding that whilst each Metropolis has a minimum population 250, 000, Municipal 95,000 and each District 75,000.
Strangely against the norm of consistency, the report said the Municipal Assembly alone was expected to have in addition to the population size , a certain distinction of geographical dispersion which must constitute a single compact settlement.
The Local Government Act ,1993,(Act 426) in providing for the creation of districts in Section 1 and recommendations to be made E.C. to the President in that regard in subsection(4) of Section 1,requires that E.C. in making recommendations for the establishment of a municipality to consider whether the geographical area to be declared a municipality consisted of a single compact settlement with a minimum population of 95,000.
The report said, it implied that where geographical area is a single compact settlement but did not have a population of 95,000 that are could not be declared a municipality.
This requirement is therefore an impediment to the creation of municipalities and limits the geographical area which can be declared municipalities.
The amendment would ensure that all tiers of assemblies in the country are differentiated by a common denominator which is population.
The Local Government (Amendment)Bill 2012 was laid before Parliament on Thursday Ffebruary,2 and referred to the Committee on Local Government and Rural development for consideration and report.
The report of the Committee on Local Government and Rural Development on the amendment bill, said if the decision was effected, the population factor could be used to define a municipality so as to be consistent with the definitions of Districts and Metropolitan Areas.
The report said the amendment was being proposed to create eight new municipalities and also cater for eight existing ones created in 2004 and 2007 to streamline issues.
According to the report, if the amendment was not made a number of municipalities created in 2004 and 2007 could be declared null and void, because these municipalities were not single compact settlement and did not fulfill the strict legal requirements and therefore rendered illegal.
“Until section 1(4) (a) (11)is amended to bring the law in harmony with existing reality, these municipalities will continue to be seen to be illegal,”the report said.
Currently the key and consistent distinction among the three tiers of Assemblies-the Metropolitan, Municipal and District is the population.
According to the report, the degree of geographical dispersion was not consistent in the status of assemblies in the country adding that whilst each Metropolis has a minimum population 250, 000, Municipal 95,000 and each District 75,000.
Strangely against the norm of consistency, the report said the Municipal Assembly alone was expected to have in addition to the population size , a certain distinction of geographical dispersion which must constitute a single compact settlement.
The Local Government Act ,1993,(Act 426) in providing for the creation of districts in Section 1 and recommendations to be made E.C. to the President in that regard in subsection(4) of Section 1,requires that E.C. in making recommendations for the establishment of a municipality to consider whether the geographical area to be declared a municipality consisted of a single compact settlement with a minimum population of 95,000.
The report said, it implied that where geographical area is a single compact settlement but did not have a population of 95,000 that are could not be declared a municipality.
This requirement is therefore an impediment to the creation of municipalities and limits the geographical area which can be declared municipalities.
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