FAM polls expose flaws in statutes

The vote tie for the position of first vice-president during Football Association of Malawi (FAM) executive committee elections at Sunbird Mzuzu on Saturday exposed flaws in the association’s statutes and the need to review, legal minds have suggested.

Delegates voted three times to determine the winner after Christopher Madalitso Kuyera and James Mwenda tied on 18 votes and the former won after the third round of voting with 19 votes against 17.

In an interview yesterday, the association’s electoral committee chairperson James Masumbu, a private practice lawyer, said: “If one of the delegates had not changed his or her mind, it meant we were headed for a listless conclusion.

“The situation provided food for thought on the need to review the statues and have a clear tie-breaker.

“In my view, having an uneven number of delegates would be an ideal solution. Or else the statutes could provide a casting vote to determine a winner.”

Another private practice lawyer and football follower David Kanyenda said the FAM Statutes “require a holistic rather than piecemeal review”.

He said: “The composition of the electoral college is only one aspect that’s in dire need of  recalibration.

“We must have an odd number of electors as well as a larger pool comprising all executive committee members from affiliates.”

Kanyenda  said candidates should not be allowed to become voting delegates and confer on themselves numerical superiority.

“One task at hand for the newly elected FAM president [Fleetwood] Haiya is to establish a committee to review the statutes of FAM and affiliates to achieve local harmonisation and consistency with international benchmarks,” he said.

FAM general secretary Alfred Gunda said: “As a living document that is reviewed from time to time, that could indeed be considered.

“The elections provided a lesson that having an even number of delegates is not the best because the rule says until the tie is broken, but what if voters stick to their guns and the tie is not broken?”

He said even  observers from Fifa and Confederation of African Football stressed the need to address that.

“So, yes, we have learnt a lesson and we’ll find a smooth process to address the issue,” said Gunda