Chicago, May 4 2003— At a meeting in London Towne Homes Community #2 Building today, the strong Ghana National Council of Metropolitan Chicago (GNC), formally elected Dr. Abdallah Yahaya to a two-year term by 15 to 4 votes, one disqualified vote was recorded.

After the votes were cast, the electoral commissioner, Reverend Dr. Kofi Noonoo declared the sole candidate for president, Dr. Yahaya and his running mate, Mrs. Elizabeth Bekwei, President and Vice President-elect respectively. In a short message, Reverend Dr. Noonoo appealed to the community to rally behind their new leader.

Dr. Yahaya, who was unusually calm and quite thanked the community for the trust and faith reposed in him and promised that though his cabinet is not yet ready, it will slowly emerge to tackle the issues of the Ghanaian Community. He appealed to the council to come together and organize Ghanafest, which has become an important celebration that has generated a lot of interest and participants from North America, Ghana and Europe.

In another development, the out-going President, Mr. Clement Timpo was voted to lead a 5-man committee to organize Ghanafest 2003, which is slated to come off on July 26, 2003 at the Washington Park, 54th and Cottage Groove, Chicago.

It is pertinent to note that, Benjamin Lartey, the president of Ga-Adangbe Organization, attempted to disrupt the formation of the Ghanafest committee, by refusing to yield the floor to others to the chagrin of the Chairman of the GNC, Mr. Eddie Quartey, the newly elected president, Dr. Yahaya and some council members. Such actions may undermine the work of the newly elected president and cause the GNC to loose the present meeting venue.