AMA fails to elect Presiding Member for the third time

Accra, March 23, GNA - There was a huge confusion at the Old Parliament House in Accra on Wednesday when the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) postponed the election of a Presiding Member (PM) for the third time.

The announcement by AMA's Public Relations Officer, Numo Blafo III, that he had received 93instructions from above" to call off the meeting, did not go down well with the Assembly Members who had gone there with the hope of finally electing a PM.

To show their protest, the members shouted angrily and wore red bands demanding to know why and who was behind the postponement of the election without giving them any tangible explanation. In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mr Moses Abor, Assembly Member for Kokomlemle East, expressed dismay at the tactics being employed by the AMA to impose a Presiding Member on them without allowing due process to take place.

"We should have elected our PM the very day we were sworn into office, but up to date we (Assembly Members) have not been given the chance to do so. This election would take just a few minutes or hours if we should have it now. Anyway, we know who we will vote for," he said angrily.

Mr Abor said without the election of a PM, there was no way the Assembly could sit to deliberate on matters affecting the Assembly. "The AMA has been bedevilled with cholera and we do not have a PM so that we will sit and deliberate on the matter," he said. Mr Abor appealed to anyone who might be interfering with the election of a Presiding Member to stop it as it was non-partisan. Mr Robert Kwame Dadzie, Assembly Member for Adwenbu Electoral Area at Mataheko, appealed to the AMA to sit up as they (Assembly Members) would not allow themselves to be taken for granted. Numo Blafo refused to comment adding that the AMA would issue a press statement in due course.