An official of a First division club opposed to the polices of the current GFF executive who prefer to be anonymous has called on clubs to reject the current amendments proposed by the GFF at the planned extraordinary AGM on Saturday.
The GFF has called an extraordinary AGM to table amendments to key laws affecting the election process in general and the election of a President in particular. According to a release from the GFF, Football House wants delegates to make the following changes: replace “One Year” with “Three Months” in the law which states that ‘Elections shall be conducted by an Electoral Committee which shall be elected by the General Assembly One Year before the election in compliance with the Electoral Code’ and replace “One Month” with “Three Months” in the law which states that ‘Only members of the GFF may propose candidates for the office of the President and Members shall notify the General Secretariat in writing of the name of a candidate for the presidency of GFF at least (1) one month before the date of the General Assembly’.
However in his intervention, our anonymous analyst a well known critic of the GFF, said the changes are designed to steal the GFF elections which must be held not later than December. “Instead of putting in place an electoral body one year before the elections as dictated by the constitution, they waited until now, just about 8 months to go, to even talk about that, and worst still, they even want to change it and cut it from one year to three months. This is already a gross violation of the GFF constitution and delegates must reject it,” he observed.
He further argued that to change the time frame for declaring ones candidature for the presidency from one month to three months is also aimed at giving undue advantage to the incumbent who can use the early knowledge of his potential opponents identities to plot against them. “This is another election stealing method and it must be resisted,” he urged delegates.
According to the official, it is very sad that at this moment when Gambian football is going into the doldrums by the day, the GFF is only concern with tactics that will ensure they remain in office beyond 2018 by ‘inducing’ clubs and other stakeholders with cash presentations and travelling luxuries.
“I want every club and regional official to know that they are not the only stakeholders in football. Yes they are the ones who cast their votes but millions of Gambians are interested in football and are currently totally dissatisfied with the state of football in the Gambia.
Gambians are watching these stakeholders enabling the GFF and recording their activities. If they remain rubberstamped even in this new era of progressive thinking, history will not judge them well,” he concluded.
