The Bolgatanga Municipal Assembly on Thursday, June 14, 2024, elected the Assembly Member for Sherigu-Kumbelingo Electoral Area, Stephen Akugre, as Presiding Member after previous failed attempts to reach a compromise.
Two previous attempts following the reconstitution of the various assemblies earlier this year after the December 2023 local-level elections failed to see to the successful election of the Presiding Member (PM).
Before the dissolution of the assemblies, the Bolga Assembly struggled to re-elect a presiding member.
This negatively affected the ability of the assembly to hold meetings and adversely affected the constitution of various sub-committees and the election of the various conveners of such committees.
After hours of engagements and what could be described as caucus meetings, the assembly members agreed to constitute the various committees, elect the conveners, and subsequently elect a presiding member.
Eventually, Mr. Akugre who went uncontested following consensus building polled 36 Yes votes out of the entire members of 41 with 2 No votes and 2 members of the assembly being absent. This represents 88% of the votes cast.
The election of a presiding member is critical in the assessment of assemblies for the District Performance Assessment Task (DPAT) which comes with dedicated funding for developmental projects.
Speaking to Dreamz News moments after the exercise, the Municipal Chief Executive for Bolgatanga, Rex Asanga, expressed excitement that the assembly members finally reached a compromise.
He said the Assembly could lose significant marks if it had failed to elect a presiding member again ahead of the assessment for DPAT which will be conducted soon.
“It is a joy for me. The structure of the assembly requires that we have an MCE, a presiding member who is representing the rest of the assembly members. He makes the work easy for us. He makes the work easy for us because he will bring to us, the views of the assembly members and he presides over meetings. Without the presiding member, in the assessments, we can lose a lot of marks. So, we would have lost funds and so this is a joy for me.” Mr. Asanga stated with a sigh of relief.
The MCE said the election of the Presiding Member and the constitution of various sub-committees give the assembly the full complement to approach developmental challenges in areas such as security, education, sanitation, and health among others.
