Drama at La Dade Kotopon Assembly as MCE nominee is rejected

There was play astatine the La Dade Kotopon Municipal Assembly (LADMA) successful Accra connected Tuesday, May 6, 2025, arsenic Assembly Members overwhelmingly rejected President John Dramani Mahama’s nominee for Municipal Chief Executive (MCE), Alfredos Nii Anyetei.

The rejection has sparked renewed calls for long-serving enactment stalwart and existent Chief Whip of the Assembly, Aaron Akrong, to beryllium nominated for the apical job.

The event, attended by the Member of Parliament for the country and Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rita Naa Odoley Sowah, and the Greater Accra Regional Minister, Linda Ocloo, ended successful disappointment for the President’s nominee.

Anyetei polled lone 5 votes retired of 14—representing conscionable 36 percent—falling good abbreviated of the two-thirds bulk required for confirmation. With 9 Assembly Members voting “No,” the result leaves nary country for a mandatory 2nd vote, efficaciously disqualifying the nominee from being re-nominated.

The debased turnout successful favour of Anyetei, believed to see lone the 5 authorities appointees, highlights beardown interior absorption to his candidacy.

The announcement of the results by the Electoral Commission was met with jubilation from enactment faithful and assemblage members, who sang revolutionary songs and hailed the verdict arsenic a triumph for grassroots democracy.

Assembly Members and supporters accused cardinal enactment figures of attempting to enforce a campaigner perceived to beryllium retired of interaction with the constituency.

Criticisms were directed astatine the MP, Odoley Sowah, for alleged arrogance, and astatine erstwhile MP Amasa Namoale—believed to beryllium the nominee’s sponsor—who was accused of undermining the fashionable favourite, Aaron Akrong.

Some Assembly Members suggested that Anyetei’s information was a governmental favour intended to honour his precocious father, Magnus Anyetei Sowah, a erstwhile enactment president who was erstwhile tipped for the MCE relation but ne'er appointed.

They argued that the younger Anyetei lacked the maturity and acquisition required for the presumption and insisted that loyalty and agelong work should beryllium rewarded.

Unconfirmed reports of fiscal inducement further inflamed tensions, with speculation that members were promised GH¢50,000 each to endorse the nominee but lone received GH¢13,000, allegedly contributing to the backlash.

Calls for Aaron Akrong, affectionately known arsenic “Ice Tee”—to beryllium nominated person intensified. Widely regarded arsenic a unifier and a workhorse wrong the party, Akrong has served the Assembly for astir 2 decades and held the relation of Chief Whip for implicit 12 years.

“This is the man who worked tirelessly to bring the enactment to power. Why should helium beryllium sidelined? He has dedicated his full governmental beingness to this constituency,” Daily Graphic quoted a protagonist arsenic having stated.

Regional Minister Linda Ocloo, visibly dismayed by the outcome, expressed her disappointment. “It’s bittersweet to spot Assembly Members jubilating implicit the nominee’s rejection. This delays development,” she said.

Despite the setback, she indicated that the authorities mightiness re-present the nominee for a 2nd attempt, though that way present appears politically untenable.

President Mahama present faces a pugnacious determination of whether to re-nominate Alfredos Anyetei oregon bow to the fashionable request for Aaron Akrong to pb the La Dade Kotopon Municipal Assembly.