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06.05.2015 General News

Tension At Ho Poly Over GNUPS Elections

06.05.2015 LISTEN
By Daily Guide

There is simmering tension at the Ho Polytechnic in the Volta Region as the scheduled election by the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) has been stalled.

The election was put on hold due to a disagreement between management of the institution and leadership of the union over the eligibility of some candidates.

According to the rotational policy of GNUPS, Ho Polytechnic is next-in-line to host the national secretariat of the association for the 2015/2016 academic year.

However, the management of the school yesterday turned down the hosting right, just three days to the election. This has generated some confusion among students, some leaders of the GNUPS and the aspirants who had sailed through the vetting.

The polytechnic turned down the hosting right to register their disapproval of an aspirant who they wanted to be disqualified because he did not meet the academic performance that qualifies him to contest for a position in the school.

The GNUPS on the other side, says the said aspirant meets its criteria and hence has no problem with his candidature.

Explaining the situation to the media, the National Coordinating Secretary of GNUPS, Kwame Amponsah Manu, said the polytechnic, through the Dean of Students, Ben Honyenugah, served the union a letter dated 29 April, 2015, demanding the disqualification of one of the aspirants on the basis of poor academic performance.

The letter noted that the said candidate’s (name withheld) Cumulative Grade Points Average (CGPA) fell below the requirement for any student to contest an SRC/JCR election in the polytechnic.

This position is grounded in the Polytechnic's Hand Book which says 'a student should be eligible to stand for election in the polytechnic only when he/she attains a CGPA [Cumulative Grade Points Average] of at least 2.50, at the time of standing for the election.'

Kwame Amponsah Manu however, disagreed that the said requirement is not consistent with the constitution of the union, stating that as far as the constitution of GNUPS is concerned, the aspirant had met the requirements for the election.

In a reply to the polytechnic, the union stressed, “We wish to draw the attention of your outfit to the fact that such requirement is specifically limited to candidates contesting for SRC/JCR elections and cannot be applied to the conduct of national [GNUPS] elections.”

He said the union was in touch with the SRC of the polytechnic to arrive at an amicable resolution of the issue.

From Fred Duodu, Ho ( [email protected] )

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