Confusion rocks KMA Presiding Member election (video)
There was confusion when Assembly Members of the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA) met on Tuesday to elect a presiding member.
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The Assembly however failed to elect a PM for the fourth time.
According to Graphic Online's Daniel Kenu, the confusion started when an agent of one of the contestants, Maxwell Fosu for Nana Kofi Senya, confronted the EC officials to question the format of the elections.
His move was contested by members believed to be sympathisers of the other contestant, Nana Agyei Baffour Kesse, the Adumhene.
The argument spilled over to the backseats where Emmanuel Okyere, fondly called Ebusua of the Old Suame Electoral Area and Abass Nuredeen, a government appointee traded in some hefty punches.
Another government appointee, Mr Francis Dodovi and the Assembly Member for Old Suame disagreed on why the contestants did not have have their photographs on the ballot papers.
According to the Old Suame member, the EC had assured that it was going to put the photographs of the contestants on the ballot papers but that was not the case.
Again the Suame Member raised issues with the number of members who were present, to which Mr Dodovi disagreed and thus the confusion.
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Calm was however later restored and the election went ahead.
The two contestants, a former Presiding Member Nana Kofi Senyah polled 68 of the 134 valid votes cast whilst Nana Agyei Baffour Kesse polled 66 votes.
This means that a new date would have to be set for re-election since both failed to gain the two thirds majority.
Watch a video of the fight below {youtube}5tELN_uyY-I{/youtube}
According to our reporter, the election has been postponed indefinitely to allow the Ashanti regional minister, John Alexander Ackon, to meet the two contestants to persuade one of them to step down.
Nana Kesse proposed that since the Assembly has failed to elect anyone of them due to the entrenched positions of the members, the two of them should step aside for fresh candidates to be chosen.
But his proposal was sharply repulsed by Nana Senya who suggested that since he won narrowly, it was only fair that Nana Kesse stepped down for him.
The Chief Executive of the KMA, Mr Kojo Bonsu, urged members to buy into the proposal made by the Adumhene for the two contestants to step down to allow for fresh candidates.
He said major projects of the assembly have been stalled because there was no PM.
Per the Standing Orders of the assembly, the various sub-committees could only be formed to trigger the implementation of such projects only when there was a PM.