• Majority of the nominees for MMDA positions have been confirmed
• There has been drama in a few assemblies
• The dramas have happened all across the country
The nominations and confirmations of Metropolitan, Municipal, District Chief Executives (MMDCEs) across the country have not been without any drama.
From the rejection of some of the personalities by locals just when they were nominated by the president, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and announced through his Minister for Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development, Dan Botwe, to the confirmation by Assembly Members at the various Assemblies, the brouhaha surrounding these have not ceased.
So far, with a majority of the 260 MMDAs having already gone through the process of confirming or rejecting the nominees for their respective Assemblies, it leaves room for the lapses within the process to be highlighted.
In this listicle, GhanaWeb brings to you some of the major areas from where the confirmations of their chief executives have been embroiled in some forms of controversies.
We start from the most recent one in Cape Coast:
Cape Coast MCE confirmation
On his third attempt, Ernest Arthur, the then nominee for the Metropolitan Assembly Chief Executive position, finally got confirmed but this was not without chaos.
The Sunday, October 17, 2021, votes gave the nominee 45 ‘Yes’ votes against 18 ‘No’ votes.
Before his confirmation, there was confusion at the Assembly Hall of the Cape Coast Municipal Assembly due to an alleged over-voting in favour of the nominee.
Some assembly members rejected the results that seeks to confirm the nominee as MCE following the counting of 77 ballots instead of 63 representing the number of Assembly members who participated in the event.
Confusion eventually broke out after some assembly members snatched some of the ballot papers.
Wa MCE Confirmation
The President’s Chief Executive nominee for the Wa Municipal Assembly, Issahaku Tahiru Moomen, was confirmed on Thursday, September 30, 2021.
His confirmation however did not happen without incident as the voting process is reported to have been characterised by chaos and some pockets of violence.
According to a report by Adomonline sighted by GhanaWeb, confusion erupted in the Wa Municipal Assembly Hall after the counting of ballots initially showed that the nominee had polled 29 votes instead of 30 votes required for his confirmation.
After scrutiny of the ballots, a vote that was initially rejected by the Electoral Commission during counting was re-adjudged as a valid vote, thus increasing votes in favour of the nominee to 30 and confirming him for another term.
Suaman DCE Confrimation
Some members of the New Patriotic Party in the Suaman Constituency went on a rampage vandalizing the party’s office at Dadieso over the failure of assembly members to endorse the president’s district chief executive nominee.
The assembly members on Thursday, September 30, failed to endorse the nomination of Mr Philip Kwabena Boahen as more than half voted against him.
Out of 19 assembly members present, 14 people voted ‘no’ while only five voted ‘yes’ representing 73.7% and 26.3 respectively.
Assin South DCE confirmation
In the Assin South District in the Central Region, some aggrieved assembly members didn’t fail to register their anger by invoking curses on the newly confirmed DCE for the area and some others for denying them their rights to participate in the voting exercise.
According to a Joynews report, the group of assembly members had gathered with a sheep, a crate of eggs and bottles of schnapps Thursday morning. They were visibly angry and evoked the wrath of the gods of the land upon the DCE, who they accused of conniving to deny them of their voting rights.
They also cursed some officers and some officials of the Ghana Police Service and the Electoral Commission.
According to them, the elections were held on their blind side in favour of the DCE, though they ought to have been part of the process as elected assembly members.
The report furthered that the aggrieved assembly members revealed that the venue for the elections – Nsuaem Pentecost Church where it was previously held was changed to one Methodist Church in Assin Nkran without their knowledge.
In all, 15 out of 36 of them were prevented from entering whilst the 21 remaining persons voted, making 2/3 of the members needed.
With a 100% endorsement, Akufo-Addo’s nominee, Felicia Amissah was confirmed. In their anger, they slaughtered a sheep, smashed eggs, poured libation and invoked curses, calling on the gods to avenge the injustice.
Nabdam DCE Confirmation
At Nabdam, the confirmation for the nominee for District Chief Executive, Agnes Anamoo, was declared invalid.
According to a Starr News report, the Upper East Regional Minister, Stephen Yakubu, who reportedly spearheaded the “flawed” confirmation process, desperately pushed for the damage to be undone before the deadline elapses.
The nominee was sworn in for a second term after assembly members ‘unanimously’ declared a ‘popular acclamation’ for her without casting any ballots.
But many observers described the exercise as illegality because it was in breach of the Local Governance Act 936 and the Model Standing Orders for Assemblies.
