Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam fails to elect Presiding Member

Assembly members of the Ajumako-Enyan-Essiam District Assembly failed to elect a Presiding Member after three rounds of voting at the first ordinary meeting of the third session of the Sixth Assembly at Ajumako.

None of the two contestants —Mr Solomon Cobbinah, a banker, and Joseph Kojo Mensah, an administrator—secured two-thirds of the total membership of the 70-member Assembly as requested by law at each of the rounds of voting.

At the first round of voting, Mr Cobbinah polled 27 votes and Mr Mensah got 39 votes. The second round of voting saw Mr Cobbinah polling 24 votes, with 43 votes for Mr Mensah.

At the end of the third round of voting, Mr Cobbinah attracted 27 votes as against the 41 garnered by Mr Mensah.

The election which was conducted by Mr Prosper Fiifi Caiquo, District Electoral Officer, had to be adjourned. A new date was, however, not fixed.

The Assembly’s sub-committees were, however, reconstituted.

The District Chief Executive (DCE), Mr Peter Light Koomson, said the district had benefited from the District Development Fund (DDF) for four consecutive years for passing the Functional Operational Assessment Tool, which was instituted by the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development to encourage Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies to live up to expectation.

He said the DDF had given the Assembly GH¢1,199,535.70 from 2009 to 2012 and the internally generated fund  (IGF) realised by the assembly had increased from GH¢66,000 on average in a year to GH¢123,808.87.

He added that the assembly received GH¢4,430,092.51 as its share of the District Assemblies Common Fund for four years. He said the assembly had rehabilitated a number of roads and upgraded some farm tracks into feeder roads and improved water supply tremendously at both community and institutional levels through the construction of boreholes and hand-dug wells.

He commended the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint for constructing small-water systems at Ajumako and Enyan Denkyira and rehabilitating 18 boreholes in the district.

The DCE said 5,065 pupils from 19 schools in the district were being fed under Ghana School Feeding Programme.

He said for the past four years, the assembly supported the Science, Mathematics, Technology an Innovations workshops at the district and regional levels.

It also supported the district’s participation in Ghana Association of Science Teachers Conference in Sunyani last year.

Mr Koomson said the assembly was sourcing funds to complete the District Assembly office complex, which was started in 2005 and added that negotiations were ongoing with the District Assembly Common Fund Administration for an advance of GH¢801,583.36 for the completion of the ground floor.

The DCE indicated that the Economic Development Sub-Committee had recommended that a committee should be formed to see to the decongestion of the Ajumako market.

He added that at a meeting with the District Development Association on the management of the District Education Endowment Fund, it was agreed that the board of the fund should become a sub-committee of the District Assembly. - GNA