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AAG injunction issue must be placed in perspective
Colin Boyce
The injunction filed against the new Athletic Association of Guyana (AAG) administration is not aimed at returning former President, Colin Boyce, who presided over the association over the last four years to the post, as some commentators may believe.
Boyce has told Kaieteur Sport, as recent as yesterday, that even if a fresh election were to be the result of the injunction that stated that the January 20 AGM and Election was unconstitutional; it was unlawful, illegal, ultra vires, null, void and of no effect, he will not be contesting the post of President.
Rather, Boyce stated that the aim of the injunction is to sort of quarantine the association, ensure that those clubs that have satisfied the AAG Constitution gets an opportunity to serve as opposed to the illegitimate clubs that popped up on election day.
“I feel it is my right as a past President to ensure that I represent the right people, and not allow those who are not in order to run the sport,” Boyce said briefly yesterday, adding that there is an unequivocal need to put this matter into perspective.
Another section of the print media, instead of focusing on the issues at hand, has sought to bring Boyce’s track record and character over the last four years into disrepute, but according to Boyce those who sincerely follow athletics would dismiss those criticisms.
On the subject of promoting and favouring police athletes, Boyce noted that Winston George had qualified for the London Olympic Games. George is a police athlete. Boyce said sending his Coach, who is the Police Coach, Lyndon Wilson to the Games was appropriate. He had done the same when he sent Julian Edmonds with his athlete, Stephon James to the CARIFTA Games and other Coaches with their athletes to other games, but no mention was made of those instances.
Boyce said that he will ignore those criticisms since they are baseless and questioned where those commentators were in the past 20 years.
Any serious commentator on athletics would be careful to point out the tenure under which they may want to attribute “maladministration”. Boyce, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, is credited with piloting the recovery of the sport from years of ineptitude.
Aubrey Hutson
However, Aubrey Hutson seemingly won the AAG Presidency on January 20 six votes to three, but three of those Clubs, who were allowed to vote were unconstitutional. With those clubs not allowed to be part of the voting process, the Presidency would have been a dead-heat, tied three apiece.
According to the AAG Constitution, a club must consist of 10 active athletes; must participate in 80% of the AAG competitions and must not be indebted to the association among two others that bear no real relevance to the subject of the injunction.
Based on that constitutional criterion, Bedford Allstars, Rising Stars and Royal Youth Movement should not have been allowed to vote. They all failed that criterion, but were allowed to vote and all voted in favour of Hutson at the AAG AGM and Elections.
Kaieteur Sport was present at the 2013 elections and during the voting process, Boyce reportedly sought to bring the illegitimacy of those clubs to the attention of the Returning Officer, Dr. Karen Pilgrim, but an intervention came from General Secretary, Claude Blackmore, who said that Boyce had previous occasions to deal with that issue.
Blackmore, as General Secretary, would have been privy to all the machinations of Clubs before the elections.
Additionally, this newspaper has also learnt that Hutson is expected to engage Boyce on what are the possibilities of a resolution that could put a swift end to the matter. Hutson publicly stated his intentions are to reinforce the positive programmes Boyce initiated.
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