West Akyem Municipal Assembly fails to elect Presiding Member

The West Akyem Municipal Assembly in the Eastern Region failed to elect a presiding member after three rounds of voting at Asamankese last Thursday.

None of the two contestants, Mr Joseph Kwasi Baah Yirenkyi, the incumbent presiding member and Mr David Apekyi, the West Akyem Constituency Organiser of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), secured two-thirds of the 48 votes cast at the ceremony.

Mr Baah Yirenkyi secured 28 out of the 48 valid votes counted during the first round of voting, while Mr Apekyi had 18 votes.

In the second round, Mr BaahYirenkyi obtained 26 votes, while Mr. Apekyi had 19 votes and during the third round of voting, Mr Baah Yirenkyi secured 25 votes, while Mr Apekyi secured 19 votes.

Two contestants disqualified

As there was no winner after three rounds of voting, the Electoral Commission which supervised the polls, adjourned the election to February 6, 2020 for new members of the assembly to participate as the two had been disqualified on technical grounds.

The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Seth Oduro-Boadu said he was sad and disappointed with the assembly members’ inability to elect a presiding member to steer the affairs of the assembly.

Waste of money

He said conducting fresh elections would cost the assembly a lot of money at a time when more resources were needed to provide development projects for the people in the communities.

Mr Oduro-Boadu said since assembly members were elected by their people in anticipation that they would spearhead the development of their electoral areas, it is incumbent on them to protect the purse of the assembly so that the much needed resources could be channeled into raising the living standards of the people.

He advised assembly members to ensure that a presiding member was elected on February 6, to facilitate the assembly’s working processes, policies and programmes.

Asene – Manso- Akroso gets presiding member

In a related development, Mr Enoch Ofori Aiden was last Thursday retained as Presiding Member for the Asene-Manso-Akroso District Assembly after he received overwhelming acclamation by the assembly members in an election that took place at Akyem Manso.