Director of the Church, assisted by Elder E. A. Boate, then read the relevant sections of the constitution regarding the election of the Chairman. The locations of the polling booths and transparent ballot boxes, borrowed from the national Electoral Commission, and placed at vantage points in the auditorium, were shown to the councillors. The councillors collected their ballot papers at the polling booths from designated agents and proceeded to vote. They were to mark either the YES or NO boxes on the ballot papers. The exercise lasted for 30 minutes. The electoral commission then began the counting of the votes which was done right on the platform in the full glare of all councillors and the observers. The results were as follows: The total votes cast was 509; the candidate had 405 YES votes; 97 NO votes and seven ABSTENTIONS. This meant that the choice of the electoral college had been confirmed by the councillors. With that result, Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah was declared as the Chairman-elect for a five-year term of office. The elections of the General Secretary, the Anglophone and Francophone members and the replacement of Ghanaian members of the council who had completed their terms of office were held on Saturday, April 26, 2008 following the same procedure as above. For the position of the General Secretary, the Electoral College presented the incumbent, Apostle Alfred Koduah, to the councillors as the only nominee. He subsequently polled 458 YES votes and 46 NO votes out of a total of 504 votes cast. Three nominees were proposed by the Electoral College for the positions of the Anglophone and Francophone members, respectively. For the former, Apostles Albert Amoah, national head for the USA, polled 338 votes as the choice of the councillors. Others were Apostle Dr. E. O. Bediako, national head for Germany, 135 votes and Apostle E. A. Owusu, national head of France, 33 votes. In the Francophone contest, Apostle K. E. Agbavittor, national head of Togo, polled 165 votes, Apostle Rene Coco, national head of Benin, polled 83 votes and Apostle Ousmane Zabré, national head of Burkina Faso, had 265 votes to win. For the remaining positions, the following contested with the respective results: Apostles F. E. Antwi, Asokwa Area Head, 284 votes, J. S. Gyimah, Takoradi Area Head, 330 votes, A. K. Ahalivor 178 votes, F. Ofori Yeboah, La Area Head, 352 votes and Ekow Badu-Wood 362 votes. The three with the highest votes therefore won by a simple majority principle as executive council members-elect. The smooth election, according to Elder Buah-Ayisi was due to the co-operation of the councillors and the fact that the electoral process was devoid of any acrimonious campaign. Besides, he said his team of electoral officers made of Elders E. A Boate, Sharps Boafo and Deaconess Gifty Kusi did a yeoman’s job. But like any human institution, the elections were hit by a few hitches. First, there was mislabelling of the ballot papers for the anglophone and the francophone candidates which was explained before the voting started. Second, ten newly-appointed area deacons whose positions had not been ratified by the General Council voted during the election of the Chairman. As Chairman Ntumy explained their votes could not nullify the substantive results of the election. The new Executive Council to be inducted into office in October this year shall be constituted as follows: Apostle Dr. Opoku Onyinah, Chairman, Apostle Alfred Koduah, General Secretary, Prophet J. E. Ameyaw, Apostle Dr. S. K. Baidoo, Iinternal Missions Director, and Apostles Albert Amoah (Anglophone Representative), Ousmane Zabre (Francophone Representative), Ekow Badu-Wood, Francis Ofori-Yeboah and J. S Gyimah.