The Secretary general of the West Coast Regional Football Association WCRFA Abdoulie Badjie yesterday denied accusations of election fraud and constitutional violation by defeated presidential candidate Lamin Jarjue.
According to Jarjue in a protest letter sent to the National Sports Council and all media, ‘the convening of the Elective Congress was not in line with the article 29 of the Constitution of the West Coast Regional Football Association (WCRFA), which provides that Elections shall be conducted by an Electoral Committee which shall be elected by the General Assembly one year before the elections in compliance with GFF Electoral Code.”
He further alleged that the delegate register was fraudlent as legitimate delegates believed to be opposed to the incumbent executive were denied the right to vote while other unqualified delegates were fraudulently helped by to vote for the incumbent executive. He called on the NSC to investigate the elections.
The NSC chairman George Gomez said over the weekend that he has not received any such letter yet.
However responding to the criticisms, WCRFA Sectratray general Abdoulie Badjie said Mr Jarju’s claims are unfounded and only shows he is ignorant of football administrative matters. ”Anyway, yes it is true that the constitution call for an electoral body one year before the elective congress, but from the very first go this oversight at the last AGM was discussed with all stakeholders all of whom agreed that each party select two persons to act as the electoral body and Mr Jarjue himself agreed and selected Mr Lamin King Colley and some other person to represent him. So why did Jarjue he chose to ignore that fact,” Badgie asked.
On my Jarjue’s claim that he was not given the registered delegate voter for scrutiny after the elections, Badjie said all stakeholders were told that whenever they submit names of delegates to the congress the name on top their should be one who will cast their vote. “That was clear to all stakeholders. Also administratively I cannot give the delegate list to him since the election has already taken place,” he said. Mr Badjie maintained that the WCRFA elections one of the most transparent elections at which everyone was satisfied and he wondered why Mr Jarjue is making the fuss now.
Below is Mr Jarjue’s protest
letter to the NSC chairman;
To:
The Chairman,
National Sports Council,
Banjul,
The Gambia.
Thursday 27th, June 2017
Subject: Protest against West Coast Regional Football Association Elective Congress
Dear Sir,
It is with greatest humility and respect that I write to protest and draw your attention to procedural irregularities during the Elective Congress of the West Coast Regional Football Association (WCRFA).
Sir, the following are the procedural irregularities which affect the validity of the election:
1. The convening of the Elective Congress was not in line with the article 29 of the Constitution of the West Coast Regional Football Association (WCRFA), which provides that “Elections shall be conducted by an Electoral Committee which shall be elected by the General Assembly one year before the elections in compliance with GFF Electoral Code.” The members of the electoral committee that conducted the election of the said congress were not elected in accordance with article 29.
2. The 28 days notice as mandated by the WCRFA constitution under article 24.1 was also not observed. As a result, most of the stakeholders receive their notice letters very late.
3.Another serious Constitutional violation was the denial of voting rights to delegates from teams which were view as hostile voters towards the incumbent candidate. These delegates had the written authority and expressed rights from their teams to vote and be voted for on the day of the election. However, these delegates were allowed to exercise their constitutional rights protected under Article 22.3 of the WCRFA Constitution.
4. There was clear evidence of undue influence and abuse of office when privileged information
