As part of regular updates on the August 18 GFF elective congress, the Standard yesterday contacted a Constitution expert on the electoral code and system of the elections.
For a start, it is important for stakeholders to note that there were changes to the system approved by the general assembly at the last AGM in February where amendments were done that introduced additional franchise to all the organs of the Federation, be it clubs, regions, coaches, players etc, our expert explained.
He said the new additions are the number of clubs which has been increased from the current 26 (12 first Division and 14 second division) to 30 clubs.
The second division is now expanded as follows: Only 1 team will be relegated from the 14 while 4 others will be promoted to the First Division leaving the league with 9 teams. This 9 will be joined by the 5 champions from URR, LRR, NBR, CRR and the triangular play-off between the KM, West Coast and Banjul to make it 16 teams.
As for the First Division, which currently has 12 teams, the arithmetic is simple. Two clubs have dropped to second division while 4 have been promoted from the second division to make it 14 now.
The AGM also amended the number of votes for the 5-affiliate associations namely, the referees, coaches, schools, players and women’s football associations, each of which now has 3 votes making a total 15 votes for the affiliate associations alone. The regional votes too have been increased to 4 votes for each of the 7 regions meaning there are now 28 votes in the regions alone.
This gives a national breakdown as follows, Clubs 30 votes, Regions 28 votes and Affiliate Associations 15, making a national total of 73 votes. According to the Constitution each of the 73 accredited delegates has a voting right which another expert analyzed to mean that they should each be given their vote to cast separately.
Meanwhile the electoral code also stipulates that there is now an integrity check to be conducted by the Electoral Committee on all persons vying for the elective positions in the executive. Persons who may have moral or ethical issues in sports may not make the cut, our experts concluded.
Read this paper for regular updates of the GFF electoral process.
