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| Sports |
| Madise new Bakili Bullets boss |
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by
Garry Chirwa, 14 February 2005
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14:50:25
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Bakili Bullets finally went to the polls on Sunday at Admarc Welfare Hall in Limbe where an almost complete new crew headed by former Fam vice president Sunduzwayo Madise was elected into office.
Madise, whose candidacy was surrounded by controversy following his conviction on a corruption charge three years ago, got the nod for the hot seat, beating his predecessor Hassam Jussab by 178 votes against only 16.
Jussab was in South Africa as the polls were being conducted, but wished his successor well in a telephone interview later on. The other contestant was former supporters committee chair Shaulin Mangani who got 11 votes.
But the polls were not without controversy—about one hundred supporters believed to be loyal to Jussab were denied access into the hall because they were reportedly not eligible to vote.
Immediately after the announcement of the result for the post of chair were announced, the packed hall broke into a rapturous cheering.
Madise instantly got down to work and told the supporters that his first task will be to meet the club’s sponsor former president Bakili Muluzi on the issue of sponsorship.
“My immediate tasks will be to meet the sponsor on the way forward. As far as I am concerned the former president remains the sponsor. I have not had any information contrary to that. The other mission will be to intensify preparations for the league.
“We have to convince him that he should continue sponsoring the team because the impression I got was that he was not happy with the way sponsorship was handled last season,” said an optimistic Madise, who once rose to become one of the best football administrators in the country.
He added: “We have got to go and assure the sponsor that there will now be transparency and accountability. We should put in place a structured system of finance”.
Asked whether he was optimistic on whether Muluzi would still continue with the sponsorship, Madise said: “I don’t want to pre-empt, I don’t want to think negatively. Let’s cross the bridge when we reach it, I don’t want to speculate. In fact there might not be a bridge at all.”
He also sang the usual ambitious tune of turning the people’s team into a commercial entity by among other things putting in place a central data base as well as relaunching the supporters membership drive.
Isaac Nkuwu, who was the treasurer in the previous committee, was elected Madise’s vice—he was the only person from the past committee who found his way into the new executive. Nkuwu beat business magnet Jessie Kitta by 133 votes against only 34.
The position of general secretary went to Willie Phalula who amassed 112 votes against renowned lawyer Joseph Kamkwasi’s 58. However, Kamkwasi was overwhelmingly voted vice general secretary when he beat Wilson Kadya and Bright Chikaonda.
Former treasurer Gedion Kalumbu got his seat back unopposed after a three-year absence while Lilongwe-based influential fan Issa Kenala was voted vice treasurer, beating Anack M’baya who got 59 votes.
John Nkisi, Enos Chatama and Christopher Chisesele were elected executive committee members. They will be joined by three regional chairmen.
One of the club’s trustees Gaston Mwenelupembe who presided over the polls described the elections as free and fair.
“But I would like to urge the new executive to reestablish club membership as per the club’s constitution so as to avoid confusion on who is eligible to vote in future,” said Mwenelupembe.
Both Fam and Sulom general secretaries Roosvelt Mpinganjira and Chris Kamphinda Banda respectively refused to comment on the outcome of the elections.
But a throng of Jussab fans cried foul prior to the elections and one of them shouted: “This is daylight robbery, why are they barring us from participating in the elections? It is very clear that they are against Jussab. The elections will not be free and fair.”
But supporters chairman Innocent Chidzulo countered after the elections: “It is not true to say the elections were not free and fair. Those that were barred were not eligible. We made it clear to our branches to submit 10 names from each branch and that is what happened,” said Chidzulo.
There was tight security at the election premises and over 10 policemen were hired for the exercise. |
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