Controversy blights local US elections

As unease continues to surround the delayed USA Cricket Association elections, it has emerged that local elections in the New York region are turning out to be even more controversial.

At the heart of the row is the fact that applicants for the various posts up for grabs were given a deadline of April 16 to submit their nominations, with the election itself set for April 24. But at the last minute the deadline was changed to April 22 with the elections postponed until April 26.

In a surprising breaking of ranks, John Aaron, the secretary of USACA, wrote that Paul Da Silva, the chairman of the NY elections committee, changed the dates with the agreement of Selwyn Caesar, the regional director, and then added his own name to the list of candidates for the vacancy of regional representative. Both Da Silva and Caesar are familiar names to those who have followed the travails of USACA in recent years.

Other members of the elections committee claim to have been unaware of the changes, and , according to Aaron, Da Silva then went to ground and refused to answer any questions about the situation. To add to the confusion, when the committee eventually sat, Da Silva withdrew his name from the list of candidates.

Even Caesar appears to have been caught off guard. "I did not anticipate Paul entering the race, nor did he discuss same with me," he told Aaron before the committee met. "If so, I would have given him a different direction prior to the application, and not to run. The inclusion of Paul DaSilva into the race, is a personal concern of mine and it bothers me."

But Caesar went on to say he had no issues with the deadline extension because no league presidents had contacted him to complain. However, Aaron cited several of them who expressed their unease with the way events had turned.

USACA has stayed detached from the process - it has enough issues of its own - but it has also emerged it has embargoed results from elections in the North Californian region, leading to internal divides between its president, Gladstone Dainty, and other USACA board members. The fallout from this is that USACA is unable to meet as Dainty cannot find enough people to form a quorum.