Bolgatanga East District Assembly fails to elect PM
The Bolgatanga East District Assembly at Zuarungu in the Upper East Region last Thursday failed to elect a Presiding Member after five rounds of voting.
The candidates for the position, Messrs Martin Ayinbire and Bismark Akolgo, both failed to secure the required votes to emerge as the new PM after voting by the 24-member house.
Advertisement
When the assembly was inaugurated on Thursday, January 23, 2020, both candidates could not secure the needed two-thirds votes after three rounds of voting.
It was then postponed to Thursday February, 6, 2020 for another round of voting but neither candidate could garner the requisite votes after another two rounds of voting to emerge as presiding member.
As per the Standing Orders of the assembly, the two candidates have, therefore, been asked to step down for fresh candidates to be nominated and voted for at another meeting to be held later.
Entrenched positions
The District Chief Executive for Bolgatanga East, Rev. Emmanuel Abole entreated members of the assembly to avoid taking entrenched positions since that could affect the development agenda of the district.
“I am disappointed at the turn of events today because a lot of consultations were held with all the stakeholders before today's meeting to enable us to elect a substantive presiding member for the assembly,” he said.
The District Coordinating Director, Mr David Mar-Ire, observed that the inability of the assembly to elect a PM was likely to affect the smooth running of the assembly.
That, he explained, was because “a PM is responsible for convening meetings to address certain pertinent issues that might affect the progress of the assembly hence his absence will create a vacuum”.
