The
defeated West Coast Regional Football Association presidential candidate Lamin
Jarjue has challenged the result of the West Coast Regional Football
Association presidential election.
Jajue
was defeated by incumbent Abdoukarim Sey in West Coast Regional Football
Association presidential election held at the Governor’s Office in Brikama on
30 March 2017.
Jarjue
said the convening of the election congress was not in line with the article 29
of the Constitution of the West Coast Regional Football Association (WCRFA),
which provides that the Election shall be by an electoral committee which shall
be elected by the General Assembly one year before the elections in compliance
with GFF election code.
He
stated members of the electoral committee that conducted the election of the
said congress were not elected in accordance with article 29.
Jarjue
further stated that 28 days’ notice as mandated by the West Coast Regional
Football Association constitution under article 24.
“1
was also not observed and as a result, most of the stakeholders receive their
notice letter very late,” he said.
Another
serious constitutional violation was the denial of voting rights to delegates
from teams which were view as hostile voters towards the incumbent candidate,
Jarjue pointed out.
He
revealed that delegates had the written authority and expressed right from
their teams to vote and be voted for on the day of the election.
He
further revealed that the delegates were allowed to exercise their
constitutional rights protected under article 22.3 of the West Coast Regional
Football Association constitution.
Jarjue
lamented that there was clear evidence of undue influence and abuse of office
when privileged information was disclosed by the administrative officer who
persistently made phone calls to various stakeholders and insisted on divulging
names of their delegates and particular the delegates with voting rights.
He
further lamented that it was evident that administrative officer gave names of
delegates with voting rights to the campaign team of the incumbent with a view
to solicit votes from them.
Jarjue
pointed out that this elective congress witnessed fraud, adding that certain
delegates who cast their votes on that day were in fact not on the delegates
list.
Jarjue
called on the chairman of National Sports Council to investigate and take appropriate
actions about the result of the West Coast Regional Football Association
presidential election held in March 2017.
