Shama MCE Confirmed, 4 Assembly Members Go To Court

Ebenezer Dadzie

Assembly members of the Shama District Assembly in the Western Region have reportedly confirmed President Akufo-Addo’s nominee, Ebenezer Dadzie, for the position of District Chief Executive (DCE) for Shama after a second voting.

All the 21 assembly members present voted in favour of the President’s nominee.

During the first round of voting, Mr. Dadzie failed to obtain the 50 per cent votes required as he secured only 12 ‘yes’ votes out of a total of 25 vote cast, with 11 ‘no’ votes while two were rejected.

1st Voting Drama

Drama unfolded during the first exercise 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, the statement by the EC officials did not go down well with supporters of the nominee and sympathisers 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 the high table 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.

Refund Of Money

Immediately after that exercise, some of the supporters of the nominee angrily called for the refund of the money allegedly paid to assembly members to confirm the nominee.

Some of the assembly members were said to have been paid between GH¢1,000 to GH¢2,000.

2nd Voting 

On Wednesday, the assembly members were summoned to a special meeting for the confirmation of the nominee.

This was after the supporters of the nominee had insisted that the nominee had a second chance and called on President Akufo-Addo to disregard calls to nominate another person.

Court Action 

Prior to the exercise yesterday, four members of the assembly had filed a suit at a Sekondi High Court for an order to restrain the EC from reconfirming the nominee.

The suit was filed on Tuesday, October 12, 2021.

They argued that since the nominee did not get 50 per cent of the votes cast during the first exercise, the President should nominate a new person.

The four assembly members prayed the court not to allow the second voting to take place pending the determination of the suit and for any further orders the court may deem fit.

However, Justice Acquah, special aide to the Western Regional Minister, said that the four assembly members had made their intension known to the court but no judge had sat on the case at the time of the second round of voting.

From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi