Asante-Akyem Central Assembly rejects Kyei-Baffour

The Asante-Akyem Central Municipal Assembly has for the second time rejected the nomination of Mr George Kyei-Baffour as Municipal Chief Executive (MCE).

In an election supervised by the First Deputy Ashanti Regional Electoral Officer, Mr Lawrence Sarpong, the MCE nominee failed to get the required two-thirds votes of the assembly members as stipulated by law.

Out of the 36 assembly members present, 19 voted for the nominee, while 17 voted against him.

Mr Kyei-Baffour suffered a similar fate in May this year, when 17 assembly members approved his nomination, while 19 rejected it.

However, with the nominee polling 52.7 per cent, he has automatically qualified to be voted on for the position for the third time at a date to be announced later by the Electoral Commission.

Disappointment

Many people, including some of the chiefs present at the meeting, expressed their disappointment at the failure of Mr Kyei-Baffour to get the nod despite his leadership skills and in-depth knowledge of local governance.

They pleaded with the assembly members not to allow their personal interests to overshadow the development and growth of the municipality but vote for him in order to move the municipality forward.

Earlier in his address before the election, Mr Kyei-Baffour appealed through the traditional rulers present to impress upon the assembly members to give him the nod to bring his experience to bear on the development of the municipality.

He further asked them to unite and resist the temptations of being misled by people, since that had the potential to retard progress.

Present to offer their support for Mr Kyei-Baffour were the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Simon Osei-Mensah; the Head of Local Government Service, Dr Stephen Nana Ato Arthur; the Member of Parliament for Asante-Akyem Central, Mr Kwame Asumadu-Antwi; the two Deputy Ministers of Local Government and Rural Development, Messrs Collins Ntim and Agyei-Boateng and the Deputy Minister of Railways Development, Mr Andy Appiah-Kubi.