Roland Affail Monney
The Editors Forum Ghana (EFG) has congratulated Roland Affail Monney on his re-election as President of the Ghana Journalists’ Association (GJA).
The group, which was touched by Mr Monney’s conciliatory post-victory comments, also commended the defeated Lloyd Evans for graciously accepting the outcome of the election.
It, however, urged the new regional and national executives to apply the lessons learnt from incidents that preceded the elections in order to “foster unity, build on the GJA’s status in the society and make it even more credible and formidable.”
Mr Affail Monney last week retained his position as the GJA President.
He polled 310 votes out of the total 505 votes in an election which many tipped his closest challenger, Lloyd Evans to win.
Mr Evans had 147 votes with the third candidate Jonny Aryeetey polling 44 votes.
The election was rocked by confusion and allegation of manipulation of the final voters list.
The GJA election, which was originally scheduled for March 31, 2017, was postponed to September 29, 2017 when some aggrieved contestants dragged the association to court for what they termed unconstitutional reopening of nominations for all prospective candidates.
The case eventually ended up in court but was settled through mediation to pave way for the the election.
EFG, in a press release signed by its chairperson, Ajoa Yeboah-Afari maintained that the “fact that some of the contestants had to go to court was a highly disturbing development in view of what the GJA stands for as the society’s watchdog, and the media being the Fourth Estate of the Realm.”
It therefore urged all new executives and members of the association to bury their differences and work towards the development of the association.
For the Vice President, Linda Asante-Adjei of GNA got 209 votes followed by Tina Aforo-Yeboah, Editor of Spectator, who had 111 votes; Francis Kokutse, 93 votes and Mathew McKwame 92 votes.
The race for the Public Affairs was between Nii Adjei Klu of Obonu Fm, who had 216 votes and the incumbent, Mary Mensah, who retained the position with 287 votes.
The Organizing Secretary went to new entrant Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, who had the highest votes of 312, with veteran Vans Azu of Graphic trailing with 186 votes.
The General Secretary position also went to serial award winner, Edmund Kofi Yeboah, who had 251 votes beating the incumbent David Agbenu by just a vote.
Audrey Dekalu from the Ghana News Agency (GNA) was the only candidate who went into the elections unopposed.
By Gibril Abdul Razak