The Electoral Committee set up for the purpose of midwifing, organising and conducting free, fair transparent, and credible elections into the various executive positions of St Thomas Secondary school Alumni Association (STOSA), in pursuant of its mandate met virtually on the 16th of July, 2024 and deliberated on issues concerning the forthcoming elections and came up with the following eligibility criteria and modus operandi for the conduct of the elections:
1 That persons who are interested in vying for elective positions must have satisfied the financial requirement of paying their dues up to date. With respect to the constitution, particularly Section 10a, which bothers on the qualifications for vying for an elective position, candidates are only required to have met their statutory obligations of paying their monthly dues up to date. This condition automatically covers the cost of purchasing expression of interest forms.
2 That all interested candidates for all of the offices as contained and provided for in the constitution must be persons of sound mind, with no mental, psychological, and physical infirmities.
3 That all interested candidate must also demonstrate sufficient moral rectitude and unimpeachable character and must not have suffered any sanction from the association's disciplinary committee, and that in situation where any interested candidate have in the past been penalised, he/she must have been pardoned by the general house and therefore cleared to contest for the position of his/her choice.
3 All candidates must present along with their expression of interest forms a well written manifesto detailing their plans in taking the association to a higher pedestal.
4 NO restrictions whatsoever shall be placed on offices to be contested for. All constitutionally recognized offices are opened for contestation.
5 To aid the assignment and mandate of the electoral committee, the Welfare Secretary and the General Secretary shall as a matter of urgency make available to the electoral committee the COMPREHENSIVE register of all members of the Association to date.
6 Interested candidates are required to within the next seven (7) days signify their interest to contest for any of the constitutionally recognised and approved offices. This means that they have between the *17th of July, 2024, and 24th of July, 2024*, to send in their expression of interest, passport photographs, and manifestos.
7 All candidates interested in the various offices are to submit their recent passport photographs or any other passport photograph that is not more than six (6) months old.
8 In order to be able to conduct a credible, free, fair, and transparent election, the Electoral Committee UNANIMOUSLY adopted as its modus operandi the electronic voting method. This will involve the use of a specially dedicated portal within the Asssociation's website, which would afford every member to have their own unique voting ID and password.
The Electoral Committee would like to crave the indulgence of all the Association's members to please cooperate with them in order to be able to satisfactorily deliver the mandate given to them.
Thank you, all.
Mike UWAGBOE,
Secretary, STOSA ELECTION COMMITTEE, 2024.