Former Member of Parliament (MP) for the Suhum constituency in the Eastern Region, Hon Frederick Opare-Ansah, has facilitated a dialogue between the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) caucuses in electing a new Presiding Member for the Suhum Municipal Assembly.

On Monday, February 1, 2021, the Assembly finally elected Akrono Benjamin Orrison to become the new Presiding Member after several attempts for a period of over one year.

The election has held seven (7) times without securing the expected percentage of a win as per law established. This affected the smooth running of the Assembly.

The final election

There was another keen battle on Monday between Kumi Wallace of the NDC and NPP's Akrono Benjamin Orrison but the story was not different as none of the candidates could secure the required votes to emerge the winner.

Opare Ansah intervenes

However, the swift intervention of the immediate past MP, Mr Opare-Ansah did the magic.

Upon hearing the disappointing outcome of the election, he rushed to the Assembly to dialogue with the NDC caucus who had all these while taken an entrenched position not to vote for any candidate nominated by the NPP side, to change their position for the sake of the development of the area.

Shortly after the intervention by Mr Opare Ansah, the second round of voting was held and NPP candidate, Akrono Benjamin Orrison won. He polled 34 votes as against Kumi Wallace's 8 votes to win the Presiding Membership position.

The former MP later told the media that his intervention was for the progress of Suhum Municipality and successful implementation of life-changing policies by the NPP government for the Assembly.