Two assemblies in C/R fail to confirm DCEs
The Asikuma-Odoben -Brakwa and the Ajumako- Enyan- Essiam district assemblies in the Central Region have failed to confirm President Dramani Mahama’s nominees for the position of District Chief Executive (DCE) for both districts.
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Disappointment was visibly written on the faces of government functionaries, National Democratic Congress (NDC) party executives and supporters, as well as relatives, who turned out to witness the seperate events last Friday.
Officials at the events included Mr Samuel Sarpong, Central Regional Minister; Mrs Queenstar Maame Pokuah Sawyerr, Deputy Regional Minister and Member of Parliament of Agona East, Mr Baba Ahmed Jamal, Deputy Minister of Local Government and Rural Development; Dr Don Arthur; Mr Kofi Adams, Deputy General Secretary of NDC; and DCEs, who were disappointed as the assembly members in both districts failed to confirm the nominees.
The nominees were Mr Samuel Adom Botchway for Asikuma –Odoben- Brakwa and Mr Peter Light Koomson for the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam districts.
The demeanour of the assembly members was very cordial and friendly towards the nominees, which might have given the nominees hope that they would be endorsed.
At the Asikuma- Odoben -Brakwa District Assembly, the entire auditorium went into frenzy when Mr Adom Botchway, 40, who, until his nomination, was the District Co-ordinator of the Local Enterprises and Skills Development Programme (LESDEP), was introduced to the gathering.
Then the voting lasted for about 30 minutes having been supervised by the Electoral Commission led by the district electoral officer, Mr Gabriel Dowuona-Hammond.
At the end of the voting, the 45 members of the assembly failed to confirm the nominee because 27 voted in his favour whereas 18 voted against him. The nominee, according to the guidelines, was supposed to have polled 30 votes to ensure his confirmation.
There were attempts by the assembly to impress upon the Electoral Commission for a second voting but in an interview, Mr Dowuona-Hammond said it was illegal to do so but explained that since the nominee had more than 50 per cent, he had the chance to contest again, which voting could be held within the next 10 days.
At the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District Assembly, the Deputy Central Regional Chairman of the Electoral Commission, Mr Serebour Quaicoe, assisted Mr Prosper Fiifi Caiquo, the district electoral officer, to conduct the ballot.
Before the election, the nominee, who is the incumbent, appealed to the assembly members to put aside all that had gone wrong during his four-year tenure and that he would chart a new path that would propel the development of the district when confirmed, but the appeal failed to yield any result.
He urged them to put aside all their differences and have the forward march of the district at heart and endorse him.
However, when voting ended, out of the 66 assembly members present, 41 voted in favour of the nominee representing 62.1 per cent while 21 voted NO. The nominee was expected to poll 44 votes representing 66.77 per cent to get the nod.
Mr Samuel Sarpong addressing both assemblies earlier called for unity among DCE’s, assembly members and chiefs to promote progress in the districts.
He underscored the important roles chiefs played in the olden days before the advent of modern system of governance with a call on MMDCE’s across the country to partner chiefs to undertake development projects that would benefit the people.
He assured MMDCE’s in the region of his outfit’s preparedness to support them in their development agenda.
Mr Baba Ahmed Jamal, MP and Deputy Minister for Local Government and Rural Development urged district assemblies to accept and endorse MMDCE’s appointed by the President since they were all capable of discharging their duties creditably.
He advised assembly members against any parochialism and to have united front devoid of partisanship to promote growth in the district.
Mrs Sawyerr who had oversight responsibility for the Asikuma- Odoben- Brakwa district said that it had been very tedious acting and combining it with other duties and therefore urged the assembly members to endorse the President’s nominee for the district for him to take full charge of the day to day administration of the district.
By Gilbert Mawuli Agbey