With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to be a blight on the sports landscape, General Secretary of the East Coast Demerara Football Association (ECDFA) Gidell Austin, has disclosed that the entity is yet to confirm a date for its constitutionally due electoral congress.
This was confirmed during an exclusive interview with Stabroek Sport yesterday. According to Austin, a date is yet to be confirmed while logistical arrangements for the constitutionally mandated forum is yet to be discussed owing to the current health crisis which has blanketed the sporting fraternity.
He explained, “There is no date for our election, we have to have a discussion on it but it’s long overdue. They [GFF] were trying to do it last year but it petered out to nothing. At the moment, everything is at a standstill. The election was supposed to be held in 2020, as we were in office from 2016 to 2018 and then from 2018 to 2020.”
Austin added, “There has been nothing of the sort, nothing since this pandemic has occurred. We have not met as an executive. We only had been to the GFF Congress once in December 2020 but there is nothing happening at the moment. It’s difficult to communicate and get on to the people to organise any possible election. The GFF is aware of the situation.”
Presently, the ECDFA comprises President Alfred King, 1st Vice President Gregory Wickham, 2nd Vice President Jillian Frank, 3rd Vice President Mark Pertab, Treasurer Kessa Nedd, as well as Committee Members Raymond Daw, Kevin Tixey and Delon Adams.
In an interview with another daily during the month of December 2020 and prior to the federation’s rescheduled congress, Guyana Football Federation (GFF) President Wayne Forde had stated that all elections for members were suspended for the remainder of the year.
According to Forde, “I can only say that no member will be staging an AGM in 2020 and would go further to say that once the health situation improves in 2021 – all due AGM will take place under the strict control and supervision of the GFF.” He added, “As it relates to AGMs across the fraternity, many members became due in 2020, but could not organize their meetings because of the pandemic.”
