Wa, Aug. 7, GNA - Mr. Mahmud Khalid, Upper West Regional Minister, has appealed to members of the Wa Municipal and Wa East District assemblies to bury their political differences and elect presiding members.

He said it had come to the notice of the Regional Coordinating Council that some assembly members in the assemblies had taken entrenched political positions thereby making it difficult for presiding members to be elected.

Mr. Khalid made the appeal at the inauguration of the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council in Wa on Thursday. He said the behaviour of some assembly members was not only stalling business in the assemblies but it was also a source of denying the people development projects.

"Let us show commitment to provide the development needs of our people and leave personal issues aside because that will not help anybody", Mr. Khalid said.

"Our region is rated number one poorest region in the country and the Wa East District also priced as the number one deprived district in the region and therefore we must not do anything that would be detrimental to their plight again," he said. Mr. Khalid urged the electorate in the two districts to call their representatives in the assemblies to order and ensure that they elect presiding members soon.

Mr. Adams Iddrisu, Presiding Member for the Wa Municipal, said Presiding Member position was not political and did not understand why the Regional Minister and executives of the NDC were bent on putting an NDC member at all cost to be a Presiding Member for the Wa Municipal and Wa East District Assembly.

"Again the assertion that the two assemblies cannot operate without presiding members is not true because I know that everything in the Wa Municipal Assembly is operating smoothly as the assembly has approved its fee fixing resolution and supplementary budget under me (Iddrisu) and had also received its share of the common fund." Mr. Iddrisu said Mr. Khalid's statement that assembly members were insensitive to the plight of the people was unfounded because the members had worked hard to quality the two assemblies to benefit from the District Development Fund.

He said when assemblies are dissolved, the Presiding Member hands over to the Municipal and District Coordinating directors who serve as secretaries to the assemblies.

"The Presiding Member's position by law is only vacant when he/she dies, resigns or is removed by 2/3 majority of members of the assembly, so after the two years if an assembly fails to elect a Presiding Member, the old one remains in office", he said. "I was therefore surprised that the two district assemblies were not represented in the 22-member Upper West Regional Coordinating Council which was inaugurated on Thursday", he said. Mr. Iddrisu appealed to the Regional Minister to see himself as a father of all as indicated by the President John Atta Mills and should not try to adopt "divide and rule tactics" in the assemblies.