Birim Central Assembly fails to elect presiding member
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In the first round of voting, Mr Kofi Diawuo, an elected assembly member for the Towobotom Electoral Area at Oda and an internal auditor at the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa District Assembly, polled 31 out of the 57 valid votes cast to beat his challenger, Mr Daniel Danjumah, a government appointed assembly member and Municipal Director of the Birim Central National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), who had 23 votes but his lead could not secure him the two-thirds votes to ensure his victory.
During the second round of voting, Mr Diawuo maintained his 31 votes while the votes of Mr Danjumah went up from 23 to 25. One vote was rejected.
In the third round of the contest, Mr Diawuo’s votes reduced from 31 to 29 while Mr Danjuma’s votes appreciated from 25 to 27 with one vote rejected .
The Municipal Electoral Officer, Mr John Appiah-Baffoe, who supervised the election, advised the assembly members to go and do their homework well so that they could elect a presiding member of their choice at their next meeting.
He said unless the presiding member resigned or was disqualified, he was to hold office until a new one was elected.
Mr Appiah-Baffoe, therefore, urged the outgoing Presiding Member, Mr Kwabena Nkansah Asare, to act until a new one was elected to replace him.
Earlier, the Municipal Co-ordinating Director, Gum Naba Alhaji M. A. Azonko, highlighted on the law establishing Act 462 section 17 sub-section (4) which specified the term of office of district, municipal and metropolitan assemblies.
The Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Ms Ophelia Koomson, stressed that since the assembly members were to seek the welfare of their people, they should resolve to elect a new presiding member at their next meeting to promote the work of the assembly.
Present at the ceremony was Mr Yaw Owusu-Boateng, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Asene-Manso-Akroso.
Story: Samuel Kyei-Boateng