Sunyani Assembly Fails To Elect PM

The Sunyani Municipal Assembly in the Brong Ahafo Region yesterday failed to elect a new Presiding Member (PM) to steer the affairs of the assembly after three rounds of voting.

Two assembly members, Yaw Brenyah of Number One Electoral Area and Ansu Kumi of Abesim Electoral Area, both teachers, failed to secure two-thirds of the votes.

In the first round of voting, Ansu Kumi, a tutor at Twene Amanfo Senior High School (SHS), polled 27 votes out of 48 votes and Yaw Brenyah also got 21 votes.

The assembly members therefore took a break and intensified lobbying.

After the second round of voting, Ansu Kumi increased his tally from 27 votes to 30 votes while Yaw Brenyah obtained 18 votes.

Members of the Assembly again failed to elect a presiding member to preside over their meetings in the third round of voting.

The Sunyani East Municipal Director of Electoral Commission (EC), Yaw Opoku, who supervised the election, postponed proceedings for the next two weeks for another round of election.

The Municipal Coordinating Director of the Sunyani Assembly, Frederic Atipue told members that since they had failed to elect a PM, the assembly could not constitute committees to address issues concerning the assembly.

Sunyani East MP, Ameyaw Cheremeh, who is also majority chief whip in Parliament, took part in the meeting but did not vote.

“After several years, I have been invited to attend assembly meeting unlike previously when meeting dates were intentionally scheduled to coincide with national assignment, thereby making it difficult for me to attend assembly meetings though I am an ex-officio member as demand by the 1992 Constitution, he added.

After the second round of voting, tempers were high and so police personnel had to be called in to protect lives and properties at the venue.

It would be recalled that the Presiding Member (PM) position became vacant after the former official's appointment was revoked by the President.

From Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani
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