There was drama at Shama during the confirmation of the president nominee for the position of the District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area, Ebenezer Dadzie.
The Shama District Assembly in the Western Region rejected the President’s nominee after he failed to obtain 50 percent of the votes cast.
Some of the supporters of the nominee allegedly called for the refund of the money paid to the assembly members or else hell will let loose.
Some of the assembly members were said to have been paid between GHC1000 to GHC2000.
The nominee only secured 12 yes votes out of a total of 25 vote cast, with 11 no votes while two were rejected, leading to outright rejection of the nominee.
The drama started when officials of the Electoral Commission (EC) after declaring the results, indicated that the nominee had been rejected outright and that the people should wait for the president’s next decision.
However, it seems the statement by the EC officials did not go down well with supporters of the nominee and sympathizers of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) who insisted that the nominee had 50 per cent of the votes cast.
The supporters therefore rushed to those sitting at the high table, including the Western Regional Minister, Kobby Okyere Darko Mensah to tell them they do not agree with the EC officials.
They asserted that having 12 votes out of 25, constituted 50 per cent and that the nominee had a second chance within 10 days.
The EC officials, however, insisted that the nominee has been rejected outright.
Blame Game
The people blamed the rejection of the president’s nominee partly on the withdrawal of four government appointees from the assembly, which led to the swearing-in of four new assembly members before the voting.
Some of the NPP activists, who were unhappy with the outcome, also accused the former DCE, Joseph Amoah, of being behind the rejection.
They said Ebenezer Dadzie has two more attempts to be confirmed and so the president should disregard calls to nominate another person.
“We want the President to maintain the nominee to go through the full process.
“If the President wants the NPP to win the parliamentary seat here again, then he should not nominate any other person except, Mr Dadzie”.
By Emmanuel Opoku