Court action derails JAS AGM again
Published:Tuesday | July 11, 2023 | 8:26 PMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer -
The long-delayed and overdue annual general meeting of the Jamaica Agricultural Society (JAS), which was expected to be held at the Denbigh Showground in Clarendon tomorrow, has again been postponed, following a last-minute injunction filed by board member Trevor Bernard.
Bernard is seeking to run as a second vice-president.
According to documents filed in the Supreme Court today, Bernard is challenging the validity of nominations for the positions of President, First vice-president and Second vice-president which were done between May 22 and June 9 this year. He is further contending that the nominations of delegates who were nominated in 2022 for these positions, of which he is one, should stand.
Bernard also charges that the JAS breached its own by-laws by, among other things, not giving the requisite notice to the direct members, requiring them to submit names of persons from which a selection of three should be made at the annual general meeting.
An extract from a letter to the JAS CEO, Christopher Emanuel, and President Lenworth Fulton reads:“We therefore strongly demand that the AGM be postponed until the issues above have been rectified. We should inform you that if the meeting proceeds tomorrow as scheduled, we will be amending our client's claim to have the Court declare the said meeting a nullity and that all actions taken and decisions and appointments made declared null and void and of no effect.”
The 11th-hour court action means that the executive team led by Fulton will have to continue to hold the reins of the 127-old organisation for some time. Having taken office in 2018, their three-year term ended in 2021 but they have been unable to demit office, even though Fulton and first vice-president Denton Alvaranga have indicated that they have no interest in facing the electorate again.
Current Second Vice-President Owen Dobson, president of the Westmoreland Association of Branch Societies, is leading the charge to take leadership of the organisation which was slated to be weaned from government coffers in May 2023. He is being challenged by Albert ‘Jack’ Green, who in 2019 wrested power from Norman Grant to take charge of the Kingston and St Andrew Association of Branch Societies; and Fabian Rhule, president of the St Mary Association of Branch Societies.