Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
1 The Commission which was chaired by W. V. Van Lare did not, I think, allocate ‘seats based on the population of the regions’ (p. 265) but on a population-to-seats criterion which led to the creation of fewer constituencies in the Ashanti Region than in the North or the Colony, for example. The plain fact was that the 1948 Census, with which the Commissioners worked, showed that the population of the North, as well as that of the Colony, was considerably larger than that of the Ashanti Region.
2 As opposed to the Brong seats. This distinction is further explored below.
3 Only about 60% of the enfranchised electorate actually registered nationally for this selection, although Asante boasted the highest registration figures of all the regions (approximately 77%).
4 And, in turn, what constituted the geographical extent of Asante at any point in the past can be the subject of hot contestation.
5 The Council of Paramounts of the states which comprised the Asante Confederacy after the restoration of the 1930s.
6 The Chairman of the National Liberation Movement.
7 Any attempt to disaggregate Asante from Brong areas is beset with problems. The Attebubu constituency, for example, overlapped Asante and Brong populations.