Confusion, Chaos at LICA Election

Mon, Feb 6, '06

The Leeward Islands Cricket Association (LICA) will have to hold fresh elections for the presidency after two separate rounds of ballotting ended in a chaotic deadlock.

Incumbent president Carlisle Powell and former WICB chief executive Gregory Shillingford split the votes 8-8 in both ballots, prompting an animated discussion among the delegates about how the deadlock should be broken.

When the dust finally settled at Saturday's AGM in Nevis, the association was left without a president and the newly elected deputy ?- St Kitts Cricket Association?s Ingleton Liburd ?- is seeking legal advice on a constitutional way to break the tie.

According to information reaching CaribbeanCricket.com, Powell is being backed by delegates from Nevis, Anguilla, St Maarten and Montserrat while Shillingford received votes from Antigua/Barbuda, St Kitts, U.S. Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.

After the second vote, the delegates from Montserrat had to leave the meeting, prompting another round of confusion when Powell?s supporters realised he was about to be voted out of office.

At that stage, the decision was made to read the LICA constitution, which states that the chairperson owned a casting vote. However, more confusion ensued when the meeting could not determine who would serve as the chairman.

The Powell camp argued that the returning officer should cast the tiebreaking vote but, because the returning officer was a Powell appointee, the supporters in Shillingford?s camp disagreed and called for a new vote on who should be chairman, arguing that Liburd, who was earlier elected as vice president, was a logical choice to take control of the meeting.

Without a consensus, the decision was made to adjourn the meeting for two weeks and try again with a new ballot.

In the interim, Liburd told CaribbeanCricket.com he is seeking legal advice on the best way to break another possible tiebreaker. As vice-president, Liburd will call the meeting and is expected to serve as chairman.

Even before Saturday?s election drama, Powell was under pressure to explain his inability to present accounts and audited statements for two consecutive years.

According to sources, Powell explained that the accountant responsible for preparing the accounts was away and did not have time to complete the bookkeeping on time. However, as one delegate explained, the LICA financial year ended on July 31, 2005, more than six months ago, giving Powell more than enough time to get the accounts prepared and audited.

Questions were also raised about LICA being $100,000 in the red, arguing that the association should not budget for subvention funding from the WICB because Powell, as a WICB director, is well aware that the regional board is broke and cannot afford to pay monies to territorial associations.

The Leeward territories are also questioning Powell?s decision to sign a letter questioning the motives of Allen Stanford?s 20/20 tournament at a time when his constituents had already accepted Stanford?s proposal.

At the AGM on Saturday, Enoch Lewis was re-elected to serve as LICA?s representative to the WICB while Al Grant was elected to manage the Leewards senior team.

Ralston Otto was returned as national coach while Ronald Powell will manage the Under-19 Leewards team.

There was an 8-8 deadlock in the vote between Shaka Hodge and John Archibald to determine who will coach the association?s Under-19 team.