Blows At DCE Elections

There was pandemonium at Assin Damang in the Assin South District of the Central Region on Friday when assembly members were chased and beaten by some heavily-built men popularly known as �machomen�, allegedly hired to teach them a lesson for refusing to vote for the President�s nominee, Sabina Appiah-Kubi, for the position of District Chief Executive (DCE) for the area. The DCE did not get the nod for the first time, which would necessitate a re-election in the next 10 days. Madam Appiah-Kubi, the incumbent DCE, was rejected in her re-election bid after polling 19 out of the 33 votes cast. Daily Guide gathered that the nominee started shivering immediately the Electoral Officer announced the outcome of the polls. Some of the victims of the attack, who were also local NDC members, were Agnes Brefo, executive member of the Assin South NDC and Suleman M. Dadzie, assemblyman for Assin Manso Electoral area. Dadzie nearly had his neck broken while Agnes was whipped. Information gathered by Daily Guide indicated that the �machomen� were brought from Assin Fosu in the Assin North Municipality to beat up the assembly members when they refused to give the embattled nominee the nod for the second time.DAILY GUIDE learnt that some of the assembly members vanished into thin air after they had voted, looking at the aggressiveness of the �machomen�, while the more brave ones stayed on. The assembly members who stayed to see the result were chased out and beaten up by the �machomen� when the DCE lost the election. Both the assembly members and some journalists who had come to witness the election had no option but to seek refuge in various houses in the town. Information gathered by Daily Guide indicated that the incident happened after the Central Regional Minister, Samuel Sarpong and his Deputy, Queenstar Pokuah Sawyer had left the place. The paper learnt that the assembly members had earlier vowed to accept any money the DCE would give them and still vote against her. Mr Sarpong, in his address, appealed to members to forget about whatever the nominee had done to them and vote for her. In another development, the President�s nominee for Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa (AOB) Samuel Adom Botwe has been confirmed after polling 38 out of 45 votes cast, representing 84.4 percent. Earlier, 10 new government appointees were sworn into office following the dismissal of the old appointees at the assembly. They comprised three women and seven men. Mr Botwe was among the seven nominees.