Election heat at Gor as CAF-club licensing takes shape

As the clock ticks to the much anticipated Gor Mahia’s elections slated for December 11, leading candidates have raised the red- flag on voter registration process calling for fairness and transparency.

At a joint press briefing in Nairobi on Tuesday, Chris Omondi and Dan Oketch — both vying for the chairmanship — said that the process is shrouded in secrecy and accused the executive of harbouring ill motives.

The duo also want the online voter registration halted to give all stakeholders a chance to make their submissions on the way forward.

Oketch said: “The ongoing registration is illegal. We have made a lot of noise and we will not participate in the process.”

He added that minimum reforms on the club’s Constitution would have been a bench mark to the elections.

Oketch also put the executive to task over its failure to align the club to the Sports Act and the Caf- Club Licensing requirements which come into force in January, next year.

Omondi, who read the statement on behalf of the group said that the online voter registration needs to stop with immediate effect as all the relevant stakeholders were not involved.

He questioned how the executive single-handedly settled on IFEOS to oversee the voter registration process.

“This process, we feel, is prone to interference from the executive committee led by the incumbent chairman thus putting its credibility to question. This is an already predetermined election with results already known thus defeating the spirit of justice and fairness as it allows anybody who can pay the registration fee to vote hence compromising the real intention of the election,” he said of the registration process which began on October 20 and ends on November 20.

The duo also questioned the rationale of raising the voter registration fee from Sh100 as entrenched in the club’s constitution to Sh500.

Three weeks ago, a meeting called to discuss the draft constitution at the club secretariat at Nyayo National Stadium aborted after participants rejected the document arguing that they had not participated in its formulation and had not been furnished with copies by the office.

Contacted, acting secretary general Ronald Ngala said: “Why do they think they have to be consulted, how about the others who may want to contest for the seats and have not declared their interest. Coming out openly to declare interest means nothing…just because you want to be Gor chair does not mean you have a say, you can only do so when you are a member.”

“This [IFEOS] is a company we have sub contracted to do registration for us. We want a simple process where anyone may register without having to walk to Gor Mahia office to register,” he added.

“It’s a duty of EC (to register members) and we have put it as transparent as possible. We are also going to incur a lot of expenses so the Sh100 for registration and Sh400 is to take care of the expenses,” Ngala said.

On club licensing deadline, Ngala said: “We are still working on it and it may take some time because it’s not easy.”

The simmering tension come in the wake of the club’s failure to beat the October 31 deadline, for teams participating in continental assignments.

So far, only Tusker has met the requirements while, Ulinzi Stars was granted provisional licenses by the federation.

CAF REQUIREMENTS

• Clubs to have proper infrastructure with physical addresses
• A well-established sporting department comprising senior and junior teams with full-time coaches
• A professionally run secretariat headed by a secretary general
• Publish it’s an annual fantail returns