Krowor MCE endorsement in limbo

An endorsement exercise that was supposed to confirm the presidential nominee, Joshua Bortey as the municipal Chief Executive of Krowor Municipal Assembly, had been postponed indefinitely due to security concerns.

The decision was reached after the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Mr Ishmael Ashitey, declared the atmosphere at the supposed venue as non-conducive and unsafe for the activity to take place.

Early on, the heavy presence of over 50 police personnel from the Kpeshie Divisional Headquarters, some of whom wielded live ammunition, did not deter political sympathisers of the assembly from thronging the Ravico Hotel in Nungua, a suburb of Accra which was the venue for the exercise.

At about 9.30am when the main hall for the proceeding was opened, sympathizers made several manoeuvres to enter the hall but were fiercely resisted by the police.

Media personnel present at the scene were also, for no reason, denied entry into the main hall to cover proceedings.

Development at the scene which was characterised by a lot of rants and verbal banter between opposing factions led to a charged atmosphere.

Mr Ashitey who later arrived at the place had a closed-door meeting with the assembly members and some traditional rulers of the assembly where a consensus was reached to postpone the exercise.

The presidential nominee, Mr Bortey, had been rejected on two occasions by the assembly as he failed to obtain two-thirds of the votes to sail through.

A round of voting which was held in September this year had Mr Bortey polling only four out of a total of 15 votes cast by the assembly members.

Public Relations Officer of the Regional Coordinating Council, Yaa Boahemaa Intiful, in an interview, indicated that the decision to postpone the activity indefinitely was based on intelligence gathered which had begun to manifest at the venue.

Therefore the minister had no choice than to suspend the exercise to another time to avert the occurrence of any mishaps.

An Assembly Member for Antswere Gonno, Joseph Oddai Junior, indicated that the incident had stifled the development of the municipality.

He has therefore called on other assembly members to confirm the nominee in the interest of the municipality’s development.

“Because of the situation, any time we want to do something, we have to go to the Accra Metropolitan Assembly to sign for it and that has affected our progression” he lamented.