Venkat Raman (Indian Newslink)
Auckland, June 17, 2018
About 62 members of the Auckland Muthamil Sangam elected a new team of office-bearers for the (Sangam Year 2018-2019) last night (Saturday, June 16, 2018) at their Annual General Meeting (AGM) but not before a heated debate over the eligibility or otherwise of a few candidates to contest in the election.
Tamil Youth Group
The controversy was fuelled by a few candidates who belonged to ‘The New Zealand Tamil Youth Group,’ which has been active in the community during the past year.
Some members of the Muthamil Sangam contended that the members of the Youth Group were not eligible to contest in the election since the Sangam rules deemed it as ‘conflict of interest’ for its principal officers to be involved in other organisations.
Following discussions, which at times were stretched, the AGM passed a resolution to accept the nominations of two members of the Group, rejected two others since they were not present to exercise their franchise or had not complied with the rules of the Sangam.
Members’ undertaking
The AGM also accepted their undertaking that they will resign from ‘The New Zealand Tamil Youth Group’ or any other organisation that has conflict of interest with the Sangam or be terminated from their posts for non-compliance.
The election process (at which Senthil Nathan and this Reporter were Returning Officers) thereafter was conducted peacefully.
Hariharan Jawahar was elected to the post of President, while Maninilavan Arivukkarasu and Karthik Ramanathan were returned respectively to the posts of Vice-President and Secretary unopposed.
Keen Contest
The post of Treasurer was keenly contested but incumbent Frederick Doss was elected.
The position of Members of the Executive Committee also witnessed a keen contest and the following were declared elected.
Sadasivam Kutty, Raja Mani, Surendran Sridharan, Ganesh Vasudevan, Narendran Ramamurthy and Sowndra Rajan. One of the Returning Officers suggested to the new Committee to consider co-opting Lakshmi Rajagopal (the only female candidate who contested, but lost) into the Executive Committee.
A suggestion was also made to induct the outgoing President Soundhar Thiruppathi and two other members of the Muthamil Sangam into the Executive Committee.
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Photo Caption:
- The new office-bearers of Muthamil Sangam elected on Saturday, June 16, 2018 from (left) Ganesh Vasudevan, Sowndra Rajan, Karthik Ramanathan, Hariharan Jawahar, Mannil Arivukkarasu, Surendran Sridharan and Raja Mani
(Picture by Malini Hariharan)
- Sadasivam Kutty (From Facebook)
- Frederick Doss (From AGM Meeting)
- Narendran Ramamurthy (Supplied)
