ACB sanitises football

 T he Anti-Corruption Bureau(ACB) has moved to sanitise regional football league elections by highlighting corrupt practices and recomended best practices in managing elections in future.

In its rulling, ACB has called for a fresh nomination process ahead of regional football associations’ elections.

This comes after the graft-busting body’s investigations identified anomalies such as forged nomination forms and the sidelining of some potential candidates in the initial nomination process, which was done in October last year.

Football Association of Malawi (FAM) general secretary Alfred Gunda yesterday said he could not comment in the absence of an official communication from the ACB.

“We are yet to officially receive the ACB’s letter.. We will only make our position on the matter once we are officially communicated to,” he said.

But Central Region Football secretary Bernard Chiwiruwiru Harawa and Southern Region Football Association (SRFA) chairperson Raphael Humba welcomed the ACB’s verdict.Association (CRFA) general

Harawa said they are happy that the ACB has not issued a directive on the polls, but a recommendation on how it should be carried out.

“We respect the law and we will wait for FAM to guide us on the way forward,” he said.

On his part, Humba said: “We are happy with the outcome. It is a big relief because people were talking a lot.”

But Northern Region Football Association (NRFA) general secretary Masiya Nyasulu also said they will comment after getiing an official letter.

In a letter addressed to FAM and copied to Malawi National Council of Sports (MNCS) and regional football associations, ACB deputy director general Elia Bodole stated that their findings noted that nomination forms were forged.

ACB stopped CRFA, SRFA and NRFA from proceeding with their elections in November after alleged corrupt practices during the nomination process of candidates.

“The nominations that were conducted in October 2020 should be nullified and fresh nominations should be conducted as soon as it is practically possible,” he said.

The ACB has also recommended that FAM and the MNCS officials should oversee the nomination process and not the regional committee members.

“[During the initial nomination process] district football associations did not convene meetings or, in some cases, the meetings were not properly convened to nominate candidates for regional elections, since few members attended,” Bodole stated.

“Current office-bearers in the regional football associations, who were interested to be nominated, were conflicted in that they influenced the nomination process by sidelining eligible non-regional committee members, thereby imposing themselves on the district football association.”

The mandate of the regional associations expired over three months ago, but FAM, at its executive meeting in Mangochi District recently, agreed to extend their tenure until until ACB concluded the investigations