By Chernor Alimamy Kamara
Two Western Area Football Association (WAFA) Candidates aspiring for the association’s Chairmanship position in the elections scheduled for the 30th June, 2023, Noel K. Horton and Chris Massaquoi have expressed concern over what they say are the inconsistencies on the electoral guidelines and procedures put in place.
Both men expressed their concerns through a letter they wrote to Lawyer Benjamin Gordon, WAFA Secretary General on the 2nd June, 2023.
The letter explained that rule five of the guidelines set by WAFA which states that any candidate vying for the Chairman position should have stayed in the Western Area jurisdiction for a period not less than ten years prior to the congress, is inconsistent with the WAFA constitution.
They also said rule six of the guidelines which says that a Chairman or Vice-chairman seeking election must be active and must have held the same position in the first and second division or premier league for not less than ten years or must have been an executive member of WAFA, cannot be found in the constitution.
The letter further pointed to rule twelve of the guidelines which specified candidature fee of NLE 15,000 (fifteen thousand New Leones) for Chairman, NLE 10,000 (ten thousand New Leones) for Vice-Chairman and NLE 5,000 (five thousand New Leones) for other executive positions. These again, the two candidates said, are incorrect and cannot be found in any article of the WAFA constitution.
They also mentioned the police clearance certificate aspect as a requirement which they said the nomination form for candidates was only made available on the 1st June, 2023 and the deadline to submit the clearance was the 2nd June, 2023. According to them, it would not be possible for any candidate to meet the stipulated deadline based on the fact that police clearance takes three working days to be available and they saw it as an attempt to disenfranchise them. They further noted that police clearance is not mandatory as the WAFA constitution does state such a provision.
Horton and Massaquoi requested for the immediate announcement of the composition of independent electoral bodies that they claimed are truly mandated to conduct elections for the region. They argued that it is not the mandate of the Secretary General to head, give directives or determine the modus operandi of the process and procedures of the elections.
They requested for the intervention and supervision of the process by the Sierra Leone Football Association (SLFA), Ministry of Sports and National Sports Authority (NSA) .
The men urged WAFA to readjust the nomination deadline date of 2nd June, 2023 to another convenient date when all inconsistencies mentioned by the candidates would have been resolved.
Copyright © 2023 Politico (06/05/2023)
