Tema Assembly Fails To Elect Presiding Member

The Tema Metropolitan Assembly last Tuesday failed to elect a Presiding Member (PM) after one round of voting.

The contest was among the Assembly Member for the Halcrow Electoral Area, Community 2, Mr Akwasi Poku Bosompem; the Assembly Member for the Railway Electoral Area, Community 5, Mr Patrick Atitiati Laweh and the Assembly Member for the Low Cost Electoral Area, Community 9, Mr Joseph Korto.

Round one

After one round of voting, none of the three candidates was able to obtain 32 votes, constituting the two thirds required to be elected.

Mr Bosompem polled 14 votes, Mr Korto had 12 votes, while Mr Laweh secured 21 votes.

Attempts to have the Electoral Commission (EC) conduct another round of voting was resisted by the three candidates.

Consultation

After a series of consultations with the Metropolitan Chief Executive (MCE), Mr Felix Nii Mensah Anang-La; the Co-ordinating Director of the assembly, Mr Samuel Donkor, who is also Secretary to the assembly and the three candidates, the election was postponed.

The Tema Metropolitan Director for the EC who supervised the process rescheduled the election to take place within 10 days.

The election had been necessitated following the expiration of the tenure of the incumbent Presiding Member, Mr Richard Fiadumor.

The MCE, in an interview, was optimistic the assembly would put in place all the necessary steps to ensure the successful election of a PM to steer the affairs of the assembly in due course.