Assembly Members in the Akrofuom District of the Ashanti region on Friday 1st October 2021 failed to confirm Richard Owusu, who is President Akufo-Addo’s new nominee for District Chief Executive.
This was after 17 Assembly Members made up of 6 government appointees and 11 elected Members, voted YES/NO.
Out of the 17 Assembly members, 12 of them voted NO to Rejected the nominee, representing 71%
And also 5 voted YES to confirm the nominee, also representing 29%
Again, there were no spoilt ballot papers in the election conducted and supervised by the Akrofuom District Electoral Office, Madam Cynthia Adwubi Sarfo.
According to the Electoral Officer, Richard Owusu needed a two-thirds majority of valid votes cast being 12 plus to be confirmed by the Assembly members as newly elected DCE.
Madam Sarfo said since the nominee could not obtain 50% plus, Assembly members would reconvene within 10 working days for another election.
The rejected nominee, who was the Constituency Treasurer for the ruling Party refused to speak to the media after the election.
Some Assembly members told this reporter that they declined to vote for the President’s nominee because due process was not followed before the announcement of the DCE nominee.
“We are not happy with how our Member of Parliament Hon. Alex Blankson treated the outgoing DCE Jonas Maurice Woode whose removal is yet to be communicated officially to him. Until the right things are done, we will also marshal resources to vote against the new one.”
“The outgoing DCE has done his best for the District and the Party and should be recognized and accorded the needed respect. He has so far done well and we will not allow his reputation to be tarnished by the MP,” they stated.