Lower Manya election records shocks
The much awaited district assembly election for the Lower Manya Krobo Municipal Assembly, which was delayed for close to two years as a result of a boundary dispute, was held on December 3, 2013, and recorded very shocking results.
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The keenly contested election saw some of the incumbent assembly members, including the former Presiding Member, Mr David Walter Hormenu, who is also the assembly member for the Abanse Electoral Area, losing.
Fifteen others who have served a minimum of two terms in the assembly and were considered to have gained some wealth of experience in local governance also lost their seats in the assembly.
According to records made available to the Daily Graphic, out of the elected positions in the assembly, only five incumbent assembly members managed to retain their seats. They are Mr Benjamin Awuley Mensah of Odumase South; Mr Theophilus Quist, Akuse Salon; Ms Rose Okley, Kpong Zongo; Mr Simon K. Tetteh, Nuaso South; and Mr Christopher Adegu of the Ayermesu Electoral areas. Seven of the former members did not contest, while one died before the elections.
The election, supervised by the Electoral Commissioner, Dr Kwadwo Afari-Gyan, after The Supreme Court had given its verdict on the dispute that was brought before it by the Manya Krobo Traditional Council, led by the Defender of the Krobo State, Mahefalor Nene Kwesitsu Azago I, and Nene Charles Mate-Kole ( Uncle Charles), both of blessed memory, secured an injunction to restrain the EC from conducting the elections in the entire Lower Manya Krobo Municipality.
The beginning of that dispute was the introduction of the Legislative Instrument (LI) 1983 (Creation of New District Electoral Areas and Designation of Units), which aligned seven electoral areas - Zongo New Town, Akutue, Osukutu, Bungalow, Amedeka, Salon and Natriku- all at Akuse, originally part of the Lower Manya Krobo Municipality in the Eastern Region, to the Dangme West District (Now Shai-Osudoku District) in the Greater Accra Region,
Subsequent to that, attempts had been made by the EC during the 2010 District Assembly Election to rope the candidates of the seven disputed electoral areas into the assembly elections under the Dangme West District, leading to a near bloody clash.
After what proved to be a costly legal battle spanning a period of one -and-a-half years (December 2010 to June 2012), the Supreme Court declared the said LI 1983 unconstitutional and retained the electoral areas in the Lower Manya Municipality in the Eastern Region.
According to some information gathered by the Daily Graphic, most of the defeated assembly members, believed to be sympathisers of the ruling National Democratic Congress, were up in arms against the Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Isaac Tetteh Agbo, and had threatened to not endorse him if the President should renominate him for another four year-term.
The sources claimed that the MCE, very sure of his renomination, had to do his homework properly by ensuring that his adversaries were booted out and rope in more sympathetic members who would do his bidding, should the President renominate him.
The paper also learnt that there was some rivalry between the MCE and the Member of Parliament of the Lower Manya Constituency, Mr Ebenezer Okletey Terlabie, who is also the Deputy Minister of Defence and also commands a lot of support among the outgone assembly.
Consequently, those assembly members who owed allegiance to the deputy minister, including Mr Hormenu, who was the campaign manager of Mr Terlabie during the recently held parliamentary election, were the worst casualties.
The assembly member-elect for the Odumase South Electoral Area, Mr Mensah, in a chat, implored the President to consider appointing technocrats and other professionals as part of the one third of members who represented the government on the assembly to strengthen the capacity of the assembly, which had been deprived of very experienced members who lost their seats.
According to Mr Mensah, anything short of that could spell doom for the assembly, considering the fact that majority of the elected would need time to understand the intricacies of the local government practice.
