There’s brewing confusion over the disqualification of Lloyd Evans, one of the contestants for the Ghana Journalists Association’s (GJA) presidency in it’s upcoming elections.
The Elections Committee of the GJA, announced the disqualification of Mr. Evans, who is a former President of the Institute of Financial and Economic Journalists (IFEJ), on grounds that he did not “pass the test as a member of the GJA in good standing.”
“Mr Lloyd Evans, who was vying for the position of President, failed to meet the requirement under Article 47 (b) (iii) which states that “All members aspiring for Executive positions at the National and Regional levels must be members in good standing at least ninety (90) days before the elections.
“Records available to the Committee indicate that Mr Evans paid his membership dues covering 2015 on 5th Dec. 2016 and that for 2016 on 14th Feb, 2017.
In view of these, Mr Evans is also caught by the 90-day rule and therefore disqualified” a statement from the Chairman of the GJA Elections Committee, Ben Assorow said.
The disqualification makes the race for the GJA presidency a two-horse race between incumbent President Affail Monney, and his colleague from the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC), Johnnie Aryeetey.
At the vice presidential level, an executive of the GJA, Mathew Mac Kwame was also disqualified.
Chairman of the GJA’s Elections Committee, Ben Assorow in an interview with Citi News’ Umaru Sanda said the disqualifications were done in line with laid down legal procedure.
“They do not meet the requirements of the [GJA] constitution. It is in the constitution, Article 47 b (3) that all persons aspiring for executive positions at the national and regional levels must be members in good standing at least ninety days before the election.
“We have no right to do something outside the constitution. We are working for the GJA and mother Ghana. There are laws governing the elections of the GJA and that is what we are following.”
Asked whether those disqualified had given an official response, he said “We don’t have any response from them yet.
There is an adjudication committee that the GJA has put in place. If they do not subscribe with what the committee has done, they can appeal that committee.”
Lloyd Evans, has vowed to resist the decision by the incumbent executives of the association to deliberately kick him out of the race.
In a statement issued by his campaign office, they described the development as “bogus”.
“We are more than convinced that a cabal of benefactors and surrogates of the incumbent President are bent on perpetuating themselves and their personal aggrandizement at the expense of the collective good of all Journalists. “
“Team Lloyd” has been made aware almost a month ago about this ploy to deny Lloyd the Presidency by any means possible and we are working hard to reverse this bogus decision by any means possible.
“We therefore, call on all journalists to disregard this obvious Machiavellian tactics at the 11th hour, because “no force or army is too strong to stop a peoples’ will for change.”
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