Members of the Cape Coast Metropolitan Assembly have rejected the president’s nominee for the position of metropolitan chief executive (MCE) for the second time.
Ernest Arthur failed to attain the two-thirds threshold needed to be confirmed as MCE for the Cape Coast Assembly.
He garnered a total of 40 out of the 65 valid votes cast. Arthur was four votes short of the required two-thirds threshold.
The meeting to hold the vote was characterised by drama and violence which nearly marred the whole process.
Assembly members were seen engaging in wars of words.
Some of the assembly members held a press conference to distance themselves from what they considered an illegality on the part of the presiding officer and the Electoral Commission.
Most people in the municipality have attributed the nominee’s loss to his bad human relations and disrespect for local people.
Earlier, members of the ruling New Patriotic Party in the Cape Coast metropolis had made a passionate appeal to President Akufo-Addo not to renominate the sitting MCE, should he fail to win acceptance a second time.
Appeal for support
Marigold Assan, the Central Regional Minister, had to go down on her knees and beg the assembly members to put aside their differences and support Arthur.
Asaase News’s Central Region correspondent reports that, at that point, everyone was clear that Assan had been able to convince the assembly members to vote for the president’s nominee, only to find out after the count that the assembly members’ words were not matched by their actions in marking their ballot papers.
Jubilation over failure
The result was received amid jubilation from some assembly members.
The nominee was observed looking surprised by the turn of events as they unfolded.
The occasion was graced by the information minister in the Kufuor government Stephen Asamoah Boateng, the current Minister of Transport, Kwaku Ofori Asiamah, and a number of party bigwigs.
Assembly members will cast their vote again on the same candidate, after reports suggested that Ernest Arthur had been renominated by the president.
Eric Asante
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