/ 6 April 2008

Two in running for ANCYL presidency

Two candidates were nominated for the vacant post of African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president at the organisation’s national congress in Bloemfontein on Sunday.

ANCYL spokesperson Zizi Kodwa said the electoral commission’s report on Sunday showed only one nomination for ANCYL president, that of Julius Malema.

”The name of Comrade Saki [Mofokeng] was nominated from the floor and qualified,” Kodwa said. ”We have two names.”

Kodwa said the new national executive would be announced as soon as the elections processes were finished.

It was expected to be sometime during Sunday night.

Kodwa said the ANCYL congress started ”normally” on Sunday.

”The congress has come to normality to what we had expected two-and-a-half days ago.”

The conference at the Callie Human Centre at the University of the Free State has been marked the past two days with strong campaigning for Malema and Mofokeng, while the registration process and verification took the better part of three days.

Kodwa confirmed that some delegates had been ”barred” — by provincial structures — from the conference following incidents of disturbances and ill-behaviour.

The verification process of delegates was finished before proceedings started on Sunday and was one of the first things adopted by the congress on Sunday morning.

More than 3 640 delegates have voting rights at the conference, representing 2 052 branches.

There was a strong possibility that the conference would continue into Monday. — Sapa