The Kuajok Local Football Association in South Sudan’s Warrap State last Saturday elected a new president in a highly contested election.
The election exercise conducted by a team of South Sudan Football Association (SSFA) from Juba saw the voting in of three other candidates to fill the positions of Vice Precedent, Secretary-General, and Treasurer for the Kuajok Local Football Association.
Announcing results shortly after the elections, the SSFA Head of Electoral Committee in Warrap State, Arank Kak, declared Lino Majok Achien, the new President after defeating his rival with 16 to 11 votes.
“The result comes as follows; the number of votes 27, valid ballot papers 27, votes of first candidate 16, votes of second candidate 11, total votes 27,” Kak said according to the vote count.
“I Arank Kak, of SSFA Electoral Committee in Warrap state, declare candidate Lino Majok Achien as the winner of this election for the position of president of Kuajok Local Football Association for four years starting from this 3rd of October 2020 up to 3rd of October 2024 according to article 26 from unified statue for Local Football Association 2011, 2012 joint together with article 24 from electoral code 2012.”
Lino Majok Achien replaced outgoing President Wol Akec Reng and assumed his duties immediately.
Akol Mahol was elected to replace outgoing Vice President Ayuel Atem Muorter, while Longar Malual Ayuel replaced Anei Mayen as Secretary-General of Kuajok Local Football Association. Morino Achien was elected Treasurer.
According to the Electoral Committee, the new President will select four members from first-class clubs and three others from second class clubs, “The new administration will also choose one from referees, one from women and another representative from coaches to sum up executive members of the local association to a total of fourteen.”
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj shortly after the declaration of the results President-elect, Lino Majok Achien, said his priorities would be the formation of his office and settling of possible differences existing in the Association and local clubs.
“In football, there are short and long-term priorities. My priorities will be forming my office and after that, I will see if there are problems in the clubs with my team, and then we shall be in a position to shoulder responsibilities because the sport is the best way of bringing peace, what matters is to gather youth together,” Achien said.
Achien called on sports lovers from all walks of life, both in the state headquarters and in the counties, to join him to uplift the face of football in Warrap State.
He said, “For sports lovers and those who are cooperating with us in all counties, my success is not from me rather my success is from you. I appeal to them to cooperate with me, young and old for the uplifting of sports because sports is for all and so the people of Warrap State should join hands with us so that we can improve sports in the period that we shall be in the office.”
The trounced outgoing President, Wol Akec Reng, criticized the electoral team for not observing the rules and regulations of the elections as instructed by the South Sudan Football Association (SSFA) leadership.
“The sport is upside down and so elections are also upside down but on my side, the Electoral Committee is the one that has failed me. This is because the Electoral Committee brought regulations from the National Football Association but failed to follow them,” Wol Akec said. “For instance, the referees held their elections and they elected their chairperson when elections for the local football association came, these very people went and asked the Electoral Committee to allow them to participate.”
Wol said that there was also a team which resigned from the local association saying they would not participate in the activities of the association from 2019 to 2020, “the team was removed from first-class and we showed the Electoral Committee this resignation letter and so the team was not part of the election but the Electoral Committee did consider it.”
Wol says he will file his appeal to SSFA so that justice can prevail but assured the public that he does not intend to return to the office even if he is found to be right.
“The age of people to participate in election was supposed to be 34 years but some people who have taken part are below 34 years and they have been allowed to participate. I do not know why those regulations were brought, secondly, the person is supposed to be a resident of Kuajok. It is in the regulations but the Electoral Committee did not consider that,” Wol alleged.
Despite his complaints about irregularities, Wol Akec said he welcomed the election results and that he would support the newly elected president in his endeavours should there be a need for his service.
One of the voters, Mathuc Yel, refuted Wol Akec’s claims and said voting was free and fair and that the latter’s diehard supporters were present during the vote-counting process.
Mathuc Yel said, “Voting was fair when we look at changes in the vote for example in 2016 we voted in the presence of candidates, this year we voted in the absence of candidates and so there is no doubt. Because when we counted the votes, the votes of people whom we think are Akec Reng’s supporters or represented him were present during the counting. We deduced that there was no side which was favoured by the Electoral Committee and so the vote or election was fair.”
Yel said Wol Akec Reng lost the election due to his weakness associated with his previous four-year administration as Kuajok Local Football Association boss.
Wol Akec Reng was elected to the presidency of Kuajok Football Association in 2016.