Breach of Election Conduct of the GFF Constitution: (letter continued; final part)

Dec 05, 2019 Sports

---

….The response of Mr. Leal, made it seems as a personal war of power and authority and immature, without even first examining what was said and in the context of how what was said in Mr. Urling comments, which he thinks it is fair and justified, so that the Ordinary Congress for Election could be returned to the date as prescribed in Article 28. 1. The Ordinary Congress shall be held every year on or before 31st May.
Question # 2
2. Similarly, Do you believe that the fact no other slate contested the pools is an indication that the GFF General Council and the populace by extent is satisfied with the administration of the sport by the incumbent?
Response: The fact that an election that is known by all that elections is due every four (4) years on a mandated date in the Constitution under Article:28 & 29 Ordinary Congress and all of a sudden on October 11, 2019 the Federation (GFF) sent out notices to its Members informing them of an Extraordinary (Emergency) Congress along with an agenda for Elections, clearly orchestrated to prevent and barred any challenges to the incumbent executives that will guarantee their second four (4) years term in office, as there was no other reason or need for an Extraordinary (Emergency) Congress, especially with all that is surrounding the governance of the sport locally.
Under these circumstances of a Notice for Emergency Congress, which must be convened within four weeks of the notice given for such congress, which leaves any member wishing to put up a Slate having to get around formulating same to deliver within two weeks to the General Secretary of the GFF and within that two weeks’ timeline, it is not enough to allow any Member to get around putting together a slate to contest the incumbent, since meeting and discussing with each potential candidate for the slate will take up almost the entire four (4) weeks’ time of convening an Extraordinary (Emergency) Congress, hence the reason for no other Slate challenging to contest the incumbent executives.
With that of the above being said, it means there will be no elections, since there is no challenger and the incumbent will be given a free four (4) years second term ride to continue with their demolishing of the most popular sport in the world that is slowly becoming unrecognized in Guyana, except for small sided privately organized games and tournaments.
Question:# 3
3. Should the GFF General Council face criticism for their silence in allowing the present administration to conduct an election at an Extraordinary Congress and for their failure also to present an opposing slate given the state of local football? If yes or no please state why?
Response: Yes they all need to be condemned for their supportive action of an injustice to the conduct of good governance of the sport and the game itself.
This Extraordinary congress progresses despite most of the members present is not in good standing and was allowed to participate just to ensure the return of the incumbent unopposed, to name a few, East Coast Demerara Football Association and Upper Demerara Football Association who last held a General Council Meeting of its Members during March 2018 and February 2019 respectively and is inactive since then to date.
This was allowed due to the support of the Association for the incumbent, since (ECDFA) General Secretary was selected to travel to Russia to attend the “Football For Friendship” in Moscow, from the 8th – 15th June, 2018 by the incumbent, as similar gestures were given to other selective members of other Association that held no such General Council Meetings among its members, which is in contravention of the mandate of their respective constitution.
This Congress is not about checks and balances, since Mr. Leal said the reason for Extraordinary
Congress is because the agenda are usually smaller and more focus can be paid to the election process.
The Upper Demerara Football Association (UDFA) President was elevated to Executive Committee of the GFF, even though not honoring the mandate of the UDFA Constitution and only managed to meet with his Members once for the entire 2019 and only played GFF Sponsored Pele Alumni U-15 and the Namilco U-17 Tournaments during this period, as a token of support. Like most of the other Associations, he now enjoy the benefits by being placed on the incumbent Slate as an Executive Committee Member to continue his support. This is the trend all across the Members Association.
Based on the above paragraphs, the Member Associations will remain restrained (Silent) under the above circumstances at the detriment of senior level football, hence the reason for not hosting any form of General Council Meeting to engage the senior players (Clubs) and their respective representative, while they are supporting the Golden Jaguars traveling in to play and leave just as their opponent do. Accepting this type of behavior often referred to by Mr. Forde as investment and development.
Except for West Demerara Football Association, who fulfilled its constitution mandates, earn the right to publicly came out in protest against the use of an Extra Ordinary (Emergency) Congress, while all the others only played the above mentioned GFF Sponsored tournament and gotten a pass mark by the incumbent Executive as a prerequisite for support, attended and failed to object to anything during the Congress, as expected.
Hereunder are articles of the GFF Constitution for guidance to follow and judge for yourself.
Article 26 Elections of the members of the Executive Committee
Article 28 Ordinary Congress
Article 29 Ordinary Congress agenda
Article 30
B. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Article 34 Composition
Article 57 Electoral Committee Extraordinary Congress
Collin “BL” Aaron
Former FIFA MA’S Referee Instructor/Assessor

---

---