GJA postpones elections

The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), has postponed its elections scheduled for March 31, 2017.

This is in view of the appeals/petitions that have come before the GJA 2017 Elections Adjudication Committee (EDAC), and pursuant to Article 53 (v) of the GJA Constitution of 2004, a press release signed by Chairman Ben B. Assorow, said.

This follows the inability of EDAC to meet the requirement imposed on it per article 53 (iv), which requires the committee to “consider the appeal and announce its decision to the parties involved. With a copy to the National Executive not more than four working days after receiving the appeal,” it noted.

Adding to that, Article 53 (v) states: “In any situation where strict adherence to the time for lodging an objection, or an appeal may cause manifest injustice, the Elections Committee may postpone the election until the dispute has been finally resolved.”

The elections came under dispute when some contestants were disqualified, for paying their dues late, chief among the disqualified candidates, is Mr. Lloyd Evans, who is standing for president. Following his disqualification, he appealed to the EDAC and challenged the decision, as well as raised other constitutional breaches by the current Executives. Following that, a challenge was made to the authenticity of the members in good standing list as published by the Association. The list was later pruned from 988 to 456 members. Some journalists from the Daily Graphic and Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, have all challenged the preparations to the elections.

A new date for the election will be communicated as soon as EDAC completes its work, it concluded.

By Pamela Ofori-Boateng