BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THERE were scenes of jubilation yesterday (Jun. 25) at the St. Kitts-Nevis Football Association General Congress, as President Anthony Johnson and his team were re-elected for another four-year term at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort.
Despite many waiting for several hours to cast their votes, owing to the staging of the Congress, the result was just a formality as members of Johnson’s camp knew they were going to win the elections, sources told SKNVibes Sports.
The outspoken Attorney-at-Law headed into Sunday’s election waiting to see what the vote count would have been, and it turned out to be a landslide victory over his rival, popular sports enthusiast Dr. Garfield Alexander.
After the dust had settled, Johnson won a 21-4 vote count, and that set off a string of landslide victories for all members of his team - The Putting Players First Campaign.
They captured all executive positions that were up for grabs with Don Grant winning the First Vice President position by the same number of votes and Corniel Williams took the Second VP position with a 19-6 count.
The team won all seven Committee Member seats through Keithley Pemberton, Alicia Collins, Jamir Claxton, Dwyer Edmeade, Tonya Lawrence, Louis Williams and George Nolland.
Speaking with reporters after his re-election, Johnson explained that they achieved the kind of support they now have by reaching out to the member clubs in a positive way, as opposed to “a confrontational way”.
He pointed out that when a club has an issue or a representative disagrees with a view, “we do not react in any antagonistic way, [instead] we try to find a way to bring heads together and to come to a common consensus”.
“I feel that all the persons that come to represent their various clubs come with the best intentions. They come because they want to develop football and they want to see their club develop. They sacrifice a lot their own time and resources, financially and in terms of their time away from their family,” Johnson added.
Johnson declared that Nevis is key, adding that one of their elected members is from that sister island, noting that the next step for the Association is to upgrade the Bath Playfield.
That upgrade, he said, would be done using infrastructure grant from FIFA.
Question about his plan to construct an upgraded national facility for football - thus giving the Association its own national stadium - Johnson stated that they would soon be formally approaching the Government for a plot of land to begin construction.
“We have already made verbal requests in meetings with the Government, with the Minister of Sport. We intend now to formalize that request and have it put in a written proposal form in the next few weeks, as opposed to years.”
The body will serve for the next four years and its members are expected to implement a number of plans they had made during their election campaign.
