A number of members of the Gambia Football Federation (GFF) have been advised to resubmit their list of delegates by the electoral committee after they submitted delegates short of the number stated in the constitution.
According to the constitution all regions should submit 4 delegates each with a vote, as well as each allied association 3 delegates each with a vote.
However, at the close of submissions on Tuesday, the electoral committee discovered that some members, notably the regions and allied associations, sent less than the number of delegates allowed by the constitution to vote for them.
A correspondence sent to the affected members seen by The Standard advised them to comply with the provision of the constitution and resubmit the names of the right number of delegates each of whom shall have a vote at the August 27 elections.
According to the letters sent to members seen by The Standard, they have until Friday to do so.
An observer of the GFF politics familiar with elections said the Electoral Committee is effectively telling the members that there will not be any block voting.” The GFF constitution states that each region must send four delegates each with a voting right and the allied associations 3 , each with a vote . But in the past elections these votes are cast by one delegate. So, block voting was a tradition not objected to by any side. However, the right thing is for each 77 votes to be cast separately in secret ballot and that is what the electoral committee is enforcing. The Electoral Committee’s hands are tight this time around because not all stakeholders will agree to block voting so the only way is to apply the constitution which doesn’t allow block voting,” our source said. The Standard contacted the GFF electoral committee for clarification but a source there said it is premature to comment on the process.
“Once the right time comes for the stakeholders and the public to be informed, everything would be published,” our source said.
