Kwahu South District Assembly fails to elect a Presiding Member

Mpraeso-Kwahu(E/R), Nov. 03, GNA 96 Members of Kwahu South District Assembly on Monday failed to elect a Presiding Member after their inauguration because none of the two constituency chairmen of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) contesting for the position secured two-thirds of the votes required after two rounds of voting.

They were, Lieutenant-Colonel Alex Owusu Dwamena(rtd), Abetifi Constituency Chairman of NPP and incumbent Presiding Member of the assembly polled 29 votes out of the 51 votes cast, while the other contestant Mr Aninakwa Asante, Mpraeso Constituency Chairman of NPP and an elected member of the assembly had 21 votes. After all efforts to get one of them to step down had failed, the assembly adjourned the meeting.

Addressing the assembly, Nana Kofi Onwona Asante, Kwahu South District Chief Executive, expressed concern about the inability of the assembly to elect a Presiding Member and advised the contestants to bury their differences to enable the assembly elect a Presiding Member at its next meeting.

He said for the past four years, the assembly had undertaken some development projects to improve on the living standards of the people. Nana Asante said currently, the district was benefiting from 6.2 billion cedis worth of development projects being financed from the District Assemblies Common Fund and support from development partners. He said the district had been selected among 23 others to benefit from the Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA) which was aimed at supporting agriculture and related projects like transportation, education, provision of potable water and sanitation.

Nana Asante explained that, under the MCA project, 2,200 hectares in the Afram Basin would be irrigated and 600 hectares would be within the district to enhance mechanized farming. Mr Kwadwo Adjei Darko, Minister of State at the Office of the President, who read President John Agyekum Kufuor's inaugural address advised the members not to use their position to gain undue favours from the assembly.