The Elections Dispute Adjudication Committee (EDAC) of the Ghana Journalists’ Association (GJA) has dismissed the petition of two New Times Corporation employees.
The petitioners were praying the committee to intervene because they claimed they were both denied the opportunity to vote in the recently held GJA elections in which incumbent President, Affail Monney, floored his closest contender, Llyod Evans.
According to them, they are both paid members of the GJA but were denied the opportunity to vote during the elections held on 29th September, 2017.
GJA, it would be recalled, had refused to allow some aspirants to contest in the elections on the excuse that they were not in “good-standing.”
The elections, which were initially slated for March this year, had to be postponed severally as some aggrieved members filed a legal suit to challenge their disqualifications from the race.
The EDAC, having considered these petitions, dismissed them stating that one of the petitions hadn’t been signed and as such, was dismissed accordingly for the procedural flaw.
The second petition was dismissed because in the wisdom of the members of the committee, one could not appeal or protest the omission of his or her name after the elections have been held. They stated that the appropriate thing to have been done was to alert the elections committee of this omission before the elections were held.
“We concluded that an appeal or protest in relation to the omission of one’s name or otherwise from the GJA elections voters’ list ought to have been brought to the attention of the GJA’s election committee in line with Article 43 of the GJA constitution before the elections,” the committee proffered
The committee, chaired by Yaw Boadu-Ayeboafoh, dismissed the second petition, describing it as procedurally flawed.
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