Tear gas at DCE confirmation

Hell broke loose yesterday at the Sunyani West District Assembly hall at Odumase in the Brong-Ahafo Region during voting by assembly members to confirm the president’s nominee, Martin Obeng, for the position of district chief executive, when police fired tear gas at the crowd in the hall.

The assembly members, traditional rulers, journalists, the regional police commander, the regional minister and other people in the hall had to rush out for safety, having covered their noses with handkerchiefs and coughing.

In the process, an official of the Electoral Commission (EC), who was to have supervised the election, collapsed and was rushed to the regional hospital in Sunyani.

At the end of it all, the regional minister, Kwaku Asomah- Cheremeh, using his powers as the chairman of the Regional Security Council, postponed the election for the confirmation of the DCE nominee indefinitely, after the first round of voting which could not approve the nomination.

The heavy presence of the police and the military prevented the situation from turning bloody as anticipated by their intelligence gathering. The nominee, who is physically challenged, had many members of Federation of Physically Challenged at the hall to give him moral support.

They became helpless as they stayed glued to their seats outside the hall when the confusion rocked those voting inside the facility.

The first round of voting produced 35 ‘Yes’ votes for the nominee as against 19 ‘No’ out of 54 assembly members. The nominee needed 36 ‘Yes’ votes to be confirmed but narrowly missed it. Immediately after voting, and counting began, the police and the army officers surrounded the table, making those against the nominee suspect that there was a machination to rig the election in favour of Martin and therefore started shouting and ready to fight.

When counting was over and some assembly members realized they were to vote again, they refused and left the hall. Chairs and tables were turned over as they went out.