Hassan Cheruppa Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Jeddah Keralites Forum (JKF) voiced concern over the delay in elections for a new Managing Committee of the International Indian School-Jeddah (IISJ). A JKF delegation met IISJ Principal and Election Commissioner Syed Masood Ahmed recently and asked him to expedite the procedures for holding elections at the earliest possible date. Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Syed Masood said that the school authorities are waiting for clarifications for certain provisions in the 2006 Charter before completing the election process. Regarding the allegations about the delay in holding elections, he replied: “The ministry has instructed us to follow the norms and specifications of Charter of 2006 with regard to conducting elections and we had received the directives after starting the election process in accordance with Charter 2003. However, there are certain ambiguities in the new charter and we need clarifications,” he said. The principal said that they are waiting for an appointment with the Director General of the Education Department under the ministry. “We have been contacting the ministry officials on a daily basis for this (appointment). Once the meeting is held and the clarifications issued, the election process will resume and elections will be held at the earliest possible date.” Earlier, leaders of JKF, which is an umbrella body of the Jeddah-based Keralite organizations, said in a statement that it is unfortunate that the nominated members are still intervening in IISJ's administrative affairs and taking major policy decisions even after elections were declared. They noted that the school authorities have agreed to hold elections as a result of continuous pressure from various sections of the Indian community. Accordingly, a seven-member election committee was formed and voters' list was published a few weeks ago. But now the election process is being delayed for unknown reasons. We suspect there could be some elements working behind the “deliberate delay” in holding elections by pointing to some technical reasons, said P.P. Raheem, general convenor of JKF. He drew attention to the fact that elected bodies are now running Indian schools in Riyadh, Dammam, and Buraidah. JKF leaders underlined the need for elections before the start of the new academic year, which is around the corner. It is essential to have an elected body at the helm of affairs so as to make the school admission process for the new year transparent and flawless, they said while attributing anomalies in the school admission process last year to the absence of an elected managing committee. The JKF leaders said that Syed Masood, during the meeting, had sought the support of JKF in IISJ's efforts to further improve the quality of education and holding elections successfully. The delegation who met the principal included P.P Raheem, E.P Ubaidullah, C.M Abdurahman, K.T.A. Muneer, Kunhavutty A. Qader, P.M.A. Jaleel, and Zakir Hussain Edavanna. The current selected managing committee of the school assumed power in Dec. 2011. According to the released voter's list, there are 5,601 Indian parents eligible to vote. The number of parent-voters from the state of Andhra Pradesh topped the list with around 2,000, followed by parent-voters from Kerala with about 1,800.
