Techiman North: Assembly fails to elect presiding member after six attempts
The Techiman North District Assembly has yet again failed to elect a presiding member (PM) to preside over its meetings after six consecutive attempts.
After the first round of the elections, none of the three candidates was able to garner the two-thirds of the total votes cast as required.
Hon. Kwame Adu polled 20 votes with Hon. Sumaila Adams having 9 and Hon. Nicholas Sarkodie securing 6 of the total votes cast.
Three candidates vied for the position after the fourth wo is the acting PM Hon. Amegashie pulling out of the contest on the voting day.
He explained that his decision to pull out was to make the election of his successor easy in order to smoothen the running of the Assembly’s meetings.
Mr. Kwame Adu who contested on all the four previous occasions contested again with Hon. Sumaila Adams and Hon. Nicholas Sarkodie.
In the four previous attempts the acting PM Hon. Julius Amegashie and another contestant Mr. Kwame Adu went in a two-man race for the post.
The Assembly is composed of 35 members made up of elected members, government appointees and the District Chief Executive (DCE).
The District Coordinating Director, Mr. Joseph Tang in a welcome address pleaded with the assembly members to collaborate and choose a leader who would steer the affairs of the assembly to facilitate development in the District.
He noted that the absence of a PM is affecting the Assembly’s decision making process and implementation of projects and programmes.
After consultations during a brief break, the house agreed on a second round of voting with same number of candidates though there were suggestions for the third candidate to pull out.
The leading candidate in the first round Hon. Kwame Adu’s tally decreased from 20 to 18 votes while the two other candidates Hon. Sumaila Adams and Hon. Nicholas Sarkodie obtained 10 and 7 respectively.
This meant that none of the three contestants qualified to lead the assembly as its presiding member after six attempts on three different occasions.
The failure of the members of the Assembly to elect a presiding member to preside over their meetings left many disappointed including the District Chief Executive Mr. Peter Mensah.
The DCE expressed worry at the turn of events but was however confident that a substantive presiding member would be elected at the next General Assembly meeting.
He called on the assembly members to be united for the development of the District.
The Assembly meeting then continued with other matters which includes discussion of the recommendation of the Executive Committee presented by the DCE.
Source: Myjoyonline.com
