Fecofa: electoral process annulled
There will be no election of a new executive committee at Fecofa before 2025. The electoral process that began in July 223 has been annulled
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It is back to square one for the elections at the Congolese Football Association Federation (Fecofa). The newly elected committee will not be known before 2025.
Eight months after suspending the electoral process that began in July 2023, CAF and FIFA have annulled all the elections held before the process was suspended, even though everything was already in place down to provincial league level and only the national league elections remained before the new executive committee was chosen.
According to a statement from Fecofa's Normalisation Committee, the decision was taken by the FIFA-CAF commission of inquiry sent to Kinshasa to examine the situation after CAF suspended the latest electoral process at the end of October 2023. The suspension followed irregularities found in the make-up of the electoral and appeals commissions, with some members alleged to have concealed certain of their roles, which made them ineligible to sit on either commission.
Electoral and appeals commissions dissolved
As well as annulling all the elections already held, the FIFA-CAF commission of inquiry also decided to dissolve the two commissions, electoral and appeals, which were elected and set up at Fecofa's most recent general assembly.
An independent commission, made up of independent judges and lawyers, validated by the body's CONOR, is to be established.
This commission will be tasked with checking that candidates for the electoral and appeals commissions comply with the statutory requirements in force; rejecting all candidacies that do not meet the provisions of Fecofa's statutes; and submitting compliant candidacies to the CONOR for a vote at Fecofa's general assembly. The independent commission's mandate will run until the newly elected electoral and appeals commissions are in place and have taken up their duties.
A new electoral calendar awaited
With the latest electoral process annulled, the old calendar goes out of the window. New dates will have to be set in the new electoral calendar that Fecofa's CONOR has been asked to draw up. It will need to be a realistic calendar for the whole electoral process.
As for federal governance, a regular framework for exchange and ongoing consultation is being set up between FIFA, CAF and Fecofa's CONOR to allow better monitoring of the overall process.