An aspiring chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) has called on the Election Committee of the GJA to reopen nominations to enable members interested in national and regional positions to file their nominations ahead of the elections in June.
The GJA’s national and regional elections were hit by a lawsuit in 2021 after a member of the association challenged the legitimacy of the executives to supervise the elections after their tenure of office had expired in November 2020. However, the court directed the plaintiff, Caroline Boateng to use structures of the GJA for amicable resolution.
Subsequently, the Elections Dispute Adjudication Committee was set up to look into all issues and come out with a roadmap leading to the conduct of the elections.
Following the release of the report on its findings and recommendations made therein, the Elections Adjudication Committee has proposed to the Elections Committee of the GJA to conduct the elections on Friday June 24, 2022 at all designated polling stations across the country.
Here in the Upper East Region, five members of the GJA had filed for various positions – chairmanship; William Nlanjerbor Jalulah of A1 Radio and Isaac Asare of GCB, Vice-chairmanship, Fatima Astanga of Ghana News Agency, Secretary, Albert Sore of JoyNews and Treasurer, Joshua Asaah of A1 Radio.
As processes are ongoing to ensure smooth conduct of the elections, Mr Jalulah who is in the chairmanship race has proposed to the Elections Committee of the GJA to reopen nominations before holding the elections.
He spoke to Kennedy Zongbil on Report’s Visit on A1 Radio.
“From 2020 to date, a lot of things have happened. We filed in 2021 and we are in 2022. What this means is that, if I was interested in filing and I was not able to file then, for whatever reasons, and today I would want to file, I cannot file. If I filed and I am no longer interested, or for whatever reason I am not contesting, what happens? For the GJA [2004 Constitution of GJA], at the close of nominations, if only one person is nominated for a particular position, the person goes unopposed. So it will create more room for more people to go unopposed if nominations are not reopened. For me, I do not think it is democratic enough.”
The Elections Committee of the GJA has published a list of members in good standing to vote or contest. In a press released, the association said after the national and regional vetting, successful candidates will be formally introduced to members of the association, and that the elections committee is in the process of setting up a platform to facilitate the campaigning process by the candidates.
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Ghana
