THE swift intervention of former Member of Parliament (MP) for Suhum constituency in the Eastern Region, Fredrick Opare Ansah, has finally led to the election of a Presiding Member.
Mr Opare Ansah facilitated a dialogue between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) caucuses in the Suhum Municipal Assembly leading the election of a new Presiding Member over the weekend.
The Assembly elected Akrono Benjamin Orrison after several attempts over the last one year.
The election has been held seven times without clear cut winner having failed to secure the expected percentage as per the law.
The absence PM affected the smooth running of the Assembly.
This was after the failed intervention by the Member of Parliament for Suhum, Oboafo Kwadwo Asante, and other gurus of the NPP in Suhum to convince Assembly members aligned to opposition National Democratic Congress, NDC, who had taken an entrenched position not to vote for any candidate nominated by the governing New Patriotic Party as Presiding Member.
After the accord was brokered there was another keen battle over the weekend between Kumi Wallace of the NDC and NPP’s Akrono Benjamin Orrison but the story was not different as none of the candidates could secure the required votes to emerge the winner.
However, the intervention of Mr Opare Ansa did the magic.
Upon hearing the disappointing outcome of the election, he rushed to the Assembly to dialogue with the NDC caucus who had all along taken an entrenched position not to vote for any candidate nominated by the NPP side, to change their position for the sake of the development of the area.
Shortly after the intervention by Mr Opare Ansah, the second round of voting was held and NPP candidate, Akrono Benjamin Orrison won.
He polled 34 votes as against Kumi Wallace’s 8 votes to win the Presiding Member position.
This seems to demonstrate the importance of Opare Ansah in the local politics of Suhum and the level of respect he has among both the NDC and NPP fraternity the constituency.
The former MP later told the media that his intervention was for the progress of Suhum and the successful implementation of life-changing policies by the NPP government for the Assembly.
He said “I received a call from Akrono Orrison, the PM aspirant that after the first round of voting he didn’t get the requisite number, I took it upon myself to head there, listened to the concerns of the assembly members, and assured them that their complaints will be addressed in due time and that, we should first and foremost, put the interest of Suhuman above all grievances”.
Some of the Assembly Members told the media after the election, that “we voted for him because of the maturity and respect Opare-Ansah exhibited towards us. The reason why we have been voting against the NPP candidate for the past eight times is the fact that our MCE Margaret Darko Darkwa doesn’t regard some of us (NDC caucus) in the Assembly’’.
He added that “But for the intervention of Opare-Ansah we would have voted against the PM contender to demonstrate to the MCE that the power lies with us therefore we deserve respect. My expectation from the PM is to unify all and not to follow the bad leadership style of the MCE”.
The Municipal Chief Executive for Suhum, Margaret Darko Darkwa, however, said the stalemate which surrounded the election of the Presiding Member was unnecessary partisan politics and a waste of time by the NDC Assembly members.
FROM Daniel Bampoe, Suhum