Chance Denys Gacinya, the former president of Rwandan topflight side Rayon Sports, had his nomination for the FA second vice president position ahead of the forthcoming elections slated for June 24 once again rejected by the Electoral Commission despite the fact that he appealed to the Appeal Committee who found his appeal valid and hence gave him green light to run for the position.
The decision did not go well with the businessman who said that Ferwafa Electoral Commission, cannot, in its power, challenge the decisions taken by the appeals commission and, hence, he insisted that he will go ahead to run for the position he is contesting for.
Gacinya referred to Article 12 section 4 of the FIFA Electoral Code which states that "the decisions of the elections Appeal committee are final and may not be monitored by any government body” to express his disappointment toward Ferwafa’s insistence on rejecting his nomination.
Although the Electoral Appeal Commission had blessed Gacinya’s nomination, FA’s Electoral Commission head, Adolphe Kalisa, said that the aspirant did not qualify due to the charges taken against him as indicated in the criminal record that he submitted in his nomination document.
"It's hard to measure or say that integrity starts from here to there. Gacinya filed a criminal record which indicates that he was twice charged, first against forgery and fraud in one case as well as assault and injuring in another case,” Kalisa said.
The Ferwafa electoral code states that people aspiring to run for a position in the federation administration must not have been sentenced to six months prompting the Appeal committee to give Gacinya a go ahead to run for the position he aspires to contest for since he has never been sentenced according to his criminal record.
He paid a fine worth Rwf5,000,000 after he was found guilty of forgery and fraud and Rwf100,000 for the assault charges that he committed in April, 2022.
From the charges, Kalisa insisted that Gacinya is still not eligible to run for election in the FA because he had been charged against the law while the World Football governing body (FIFA) does not allow people who have been convicted against crimes in the past five years are not allowed to be in the management of the Association, the team or the Commission.
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"We got a certificate from the General Prosecutor's Office which shows that he was not imprisoned for six months. Conviction is one thing and sentencing is another. He was convicted but there were also fines he was charged,” he further explained.
While the Electoral Commission and Appeal committee have autonomy to take decisions associated with elections, Gacinya does not understand why Ferwafa’s acting Secretary General Jules Karangwa interfered with the Appeal committee’s decision to let him run for elections because it is against FIFA rules.
However, Karangwa said that, "Apart from being the Secretary General, I have other responsibilities as the FA’s law adviser. so I have to do my job to ensure compliance."
"I also have a responsibility to ensure good relations between FERWAFA and other external bodies [FIFA and CAF]and there can’t be good relations when we are not following the rules.”
"I do not interfere in the functioning of these commissions. I have raised my concerns about the decision taken by the Appeals Commission. They had the power to ignore it as a concern,” he added.
Gacinya informed the Electoral Commission that he will take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) and seek justice for his candidature snub.
The Electoral Commission announced the final list of candidates who are allowed to campaign in the FERWAFA elections that will be held on June 24 where 17 of the 24 aspirants who applied to run for the elections, had their candidatures approved.