Sunyani Municipal Assembly fails to elect presiding member again

Sunyani Municipal Assembly has again failed to elect a Presiding Member after five abortive attempts since the inauguration of the 50-member Assembly about 10 months ago.

None of the contestants has in all those attempts been able to secure the needed two-third votes required for the position.

In the recent election conducted and supervised by officials of the Electoral Commission (EC), Mr Agbedra Senyo, Assembly Member for Baakoniaba polled 26 out of the 47 valid votes cast, whilst Mr Otu Essel, a legal practitioner had 21 votes, thus Mr Senyo could not obtain the needed two-third votes required after two rounds of voting.

In a previous election that ended abruptly, Mr Senyo, a Bio statistician at the regional hospital in Sunyani obtained 33 votes, whilst his only contender in the race Mr Essel, a government appointee, polled 17 votes.

Mr Lawrence Amponsah, Assembly Member for Akokora-Kwadwo electoral area had also contested the same position with Mr Essel, a former Presiding Member on three consecutive occasions.

In all the previous elections conducted by officials of the EC, Mr Amponsah, a lecturer at Sunyani Polytechnic, secured the highest number of votes but failed to obtain the needed two-third votes and thus withdrew from the race and after his withdrawal Mr Senyo entered the race.

Mr Amponsah later told the GNA that his decision to pull out of the race was to pave the way for the Assembly to have an elected Presiding Member, whose absence was affecting the development of the municipality.

Source: GNA