Board Bans 5 GGAA Former Election Commissioners September 2nd was a bad day for members of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) of the Grand Gedeh Association in the Americas; they were slammed with a four-year ban from participating in all electoral processes within the Grand Gedeh Community. Those ban were Mrs. Nora Solo-Moore, Chairperson; Kwame Opa Weeks, Co-chairman; James Youboty, Secretary; and Jeje Jackson and Todd Garlo as members. They oversaw the 2013 election that took place in Dallas, Texas in May this year. Until the Board derived the decision to bar them, in the wake of protest filed by the campaign team of the Dadoua Network, all five commissioners had assured the people of Grand Gedeh that they were credible and solicited the people’s trust. But by the time the elections were over in Dallas, Texas, it was a full blown conclusion that the Nora Moore Commission was probably the most fouled commission ever to handled GGAA elections. The five members of IEC unreservedly drenched their reputations with massive fraud committed by fraudulently passing unto Mr. Tilman Collins a questionable and fouled election victory. On top of their rather very questionable activities during the election, as have been punished by the National Board of Directors, the Commission has in fact done one of the most ineffectual things by writing their report with pen for the Board’s consumption. One board member told me, “This is disgraceful that our commission that was funded could not even type their report and submit it to us….” But in a letter, dated September 2, 2013, signed by Board Chairman Eric Kohn, and addressed to the former Chairperson of the Commission, Mrs. Nora Solo-Moore, the Board of Directors minced no words in declaring that the Commissioner will not take part in election process and/or serving as commissioner of election for any Grand Gedeh organization and community. What was even more ironic but diplomatic was the Board in one breath thanked the five commissioners, but in another breath hammered them with what most Grand Gedeans considered the harshest punitive action taken against any member of the GGAA since its establishment. Says the Board, “…all members of the dissolved IEC including you are barred from participating in any electoral process, elections commissions’ activities within the Grand Gedeh Association in the Americas, Inc. for four years. The reason is that IEC inability to account for the appearance of five (5) excess ballots. This act on the part of IEC created suspicions which almost undermined the integrity of election and tended to loosening cohesiveness of electoral process and community unity.” With this action, the five commissioners are barred from serving as election commissioners, or simply put; they are barred from handling any election portfolio for the next four years. The Board warned, “Mrs. Moore it is the sincere expectation of the National Board of Directors that members of the dissolved IEC will adhere to the above decision.” It is not known what other measures the Board would institute if any member of the dissolved election commission disobeys this punitive action. Observers say, the five men have lost credibility over the handling of election within the Grand Gedeh Community, and one Dadoua supporter puts it rather raw, “They dashed our hope; they destroyed our respect for them; and they created a mess of themselves, so they should learn and recreate a credible reputation for themselves after four years.” Photo: Back: James Youboty and Todd Garlo, foreview: Nora Solo-Moore and front is Kwame Weeks, with a silhouette to represent Jeje Jackson; and the letter from the Board
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 01:34:21 +0000