Presiding Member of the Cape Coast Municipality, Nana Kwaku Awuku says the laws of the land were followed to the latter in the confirmation of the Cape Coast Mayor, Ernest Arthur.
According to him, he took all the necessary steps to organize a free and fair process, and disagrees with calls by the Minority group in Parliament for a re-run of the confirmation exercise.
“I disagree with the calls for a re-run by the minority in parliament because we followed all the processes outlined by law. We held a special meeting for the confirmation of the MMDCEs which includes the Mayor,” he stated.
Sharing the changes he made prior to the confirmation exercise he noted that, “I gave a 48 hour notice before changing the venue for the voting when I could have given them an hour notice. I issued letters to all the assembly members to also hold the voting exercise on Sunday after they agreed and every other thing was done lawfully.”
He admitted that some disturbances were recorded alright during the confirmation exercise because of the actions of Cape Coast South Constituency Member of Parliament (MP), Kweku George Ricketts-Hagan.
“Ricketts-Hagan claimed he was a polling agent for one of the MMDCE nominees but the nominee also claimed he had not appointed him. Even Ricketts-Hagan had no right to be there or mount the podium because he is an ex officio member who doesn’t even vote,” he told Don Kwabena Prah on Happy98.9FM’s Epa Hoa Daben political talk show.
Nana Kwaku Awuku further dispelled claims of over voting at the confirmation exercise. “It is untrue that the votes counted were 77. There are 65 assembly members in Cape Coast but only 63 of us voted. 45 people voted YES and 18 voted NO but after the counting, the opposition snatched 14 of the NO votes from the podium. They immediately organized a press conference saying the vote count was 63 plus the 14 they had in their possession. If the judge came to swear the Mayor in, then there was obviously no problem with the exercise.”
The Minority in Parliament has demanded a re-run of the confirmation processes of some Metropolitan, Municipal and District Chief Executive (MMDCE) nominees.
Addressing the media on Tuesday, Ranking Member on the Local Government Committee of Parliament, Nii Lante Vanderpuye stated that the use of force on Assembly Members, prevention of qualified members from entering voting centres plus the forceful eviction of some members from voting centres makes the confirmation of some of the nominees invalid.