Confusion rocks GNUPS elections

The forthcoming elections of the Ghana National Union of Polytechnic Students (GNUPS) billed to come off at Ho Polytechnic has hit a snag.

A disagreement between Ho Polytechnic’s management and the Union’s current leadership over the eligibility of some candidates has caused the elections to stall.

In accordance with the rotational policy of GNUPS, Ho Polytechnic is due to host the national secretariat of the association for the 2015/2016 academic year.

However, a decision by the Polytechnic’s management to turn down the hosting right ahead of the Thursday polls has stirred confusion among GNUPS’ leadership, as well as the successfully vetted aspirants.

The bone of contention, according to the National Coordinating Secretary of GNUPS, Kwame Amponsah Manu, is an earlier letter from the Polytechnic’s dean of students demanding the disqualification of one of the aspirants on the basis of poor academic performance.

The letter, dated April 29, 2015, and signed by Mr Ben Honyenugah was sent to the GNUPS leadership stating that the said candidate's (name withheld) cumulative grade points average (CGPA) falls below the requirement for any student to contest an SRC/JCR election in the Polytechnic.

Per the students’ hand book of Ho Polytechnic, “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.”

But in a response, GNUPS’ National Coordinating Secretary Amponsah Manu told Starr News the said requirement is alien to the constitution of the Union.

"We wish to draw the attention of your [office] 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," the association stated in a reply to the Ho Polytechnic management.

Mr. Amponsah Manu described as 'unfortunate' the decision of the Ho Polytechnic management to reject the hosting of the GNUPS national secretariat, adding that the hosting right can only be granted to another polytechnic after a resolution is secured by the Students Representative Council (SRC) from its General Assembly.