West Ada DCE COERCED Assembly Members to Display Their Ballots
The West Ada District Chief Executive, Adzoteye Larweh Akrofi with the backing of the Greater Accra Council of State Member, Kotei Dzani has forced assembly members to showcase their ballots during a secret balloting, leading to an undemocratic election of a Presiding Member for the assembly.
The duo usurped the power of such a democratic principle by instructing the assembly members to show their thumbprinted ballots to the gathering, after the latter had verbally abused the members for inability to elect a PM after several attempts earlier.
Not only has the act blatantly violated a critical component of Ghana’s fledging democracy, (secret balloting), perpetuated on the instruction of the DCE who had held the PM position before and needs to know better, but also in the full glare of the District Police Commander, BNI officials, and superintended over by the District Electoral Officer.
Members including the DCE were captured exhibiting their ballot papers before dropping them in the box, except the Member of Parliament for Sege, Christian Korletey Otuteye who had a proxy vote, declining to illegality which is a disposition to his status as a law maker.
The ghanaianvoiceonline further check reveals that the DCE after the exercise asked journalists not to report the conduct of such a flawed and undemocratic exercise. “I know it is unlawful to do so but i plead with you not to publish this negative conduct, because not only will it bring shame to us, it also has legal ramifications” he maintained.
West Ada late last year and February this year conducted six fresh elections on three different occasions involving six contenders but failed to elect a PM. The seventh was the one which was characterised with the unconstitutional development orchestrated by the the DCE and Council of State Member resulting in the election of a new entrant, Philip Sae as the PM.
The shameful occurrence cones after their mother District, the East Ada District Assembly elected Sarah Dugbakie Pobee as DCE in a “Rambo style” by the NPP affiliated vigilance group, the Invincible Forces a couple of years earlier.
By Delali Gokah
