Bawku West Assembly has no PM for four years running

The Bawku West Assembly in the Upper East Region has not had a Presiding Member to preside over the Assembly’s general meetings for the past four years.

This was as a result of successive failures of candidates to get the required two-thirds of the total number of the members of the Assembly.

This came to light when the new Assembly sworn into office on January 23, 2020, met again at Zebilla on Thursday, to elect a Presiding Member after they failed to do so last week.

The new Assembly had failed to elect a Presiding Member after a case was raised against a government appointee over his eligibility to vote.

The said government appointee was alleged to be working with the Local Government and per the standing orders was not qualified to vote and therefore the Electoral Commission postponed the election for further research to be conducted.

According to Madam Victoria Ayamba, the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, the issue had since been resolved as it turned out that the said appointee was not an employee of the Local Government Service but was only given an office by the Assembly to carry out his work.

After two rounds of voting today, Mr Alfred Ndaugo, a government appointee had 18 and 19 in the first and second rounds respectively, while Mr Atiah Kurugu, an Assemblyman for Bawku West Central Electoral Area had 32 and 31 in the first and second rounds respectively.

The Electoral Commission explained that a candidate needed to poll at least 34 of the 51 members of the assembly, in order to be declared winner and therefore asked the secretary to the Assembly to call another meeting within 10 days for another election to be held.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in an interview after the election, the DCE expressed disappointment at the Assembly’s failure to elect a Presiding Member for four years running.

The DCE indicated that the district had suffered in terms of development for the past four years that Assembly had no Presiding Member and urged the Assembly members both elected and appointed to come to a consensus and elect one person, to make decision making easier.

Madam Ayamba explained that without a Presiding Member, Assembly Members could not convene a meeting and discuss development issues or take any major development programmes that would inure to the wellbeing of the people in the district.

The DCE appealed to Assembly Members to eschew partisan politics in the election of the Presiding Member and consider the development of the area as paramount.

The people in your electoral areas voted for you because they trusted you and knew you would work to improve their quality of life, so I urge you not to allow the election of a Presiding Member alone prevent you from serving your people well, she told them.

She expressed optimism that when the Assembly convenes again within the stipulated 10 days, the Assembly members would be able to elect a presiding member and put the Assembly on the path of progressive development.