More than 800 journalists in good standing head to the polls on Monday, June 30, 2025, to elect national and regional officers to lead the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) for the next three years.

The elections, which will be conducted from 7:00a.m. to 5:00p.m., would see 12 candidates battle for six available national executive positions, while 49 others contest for regional positions.

The coveted National President of the GJA position is keenly being contested for by the incumbent, Albert Kwabena Dwumfour, and seasoned media trainer, Charles Yao Mawusi, a contest many pundits see as a battle fit for the gods.

Positions

While Mr Dwumfour is campaigning for continuity to consolidate his legacy of protecting media freedom and security of journalists, Mr Mawusi has up his sleeve issues of transparent leadership, mobilising funds for media development, as well as capacity building and training of journalists.

The Vice-President’s position presents another interesting contest as two familiar contenders –  Daily Graphic’s Mary Mensah, and the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation’s (GBC’s) Rebecca Ekpe, slug it out after a similar battle between the two for the Public Affairs position three years ago.

In the General-Secretary race, the current Organising Secretary, Dominic Hlordzi of the GBC, is putting up a spirited battle against a former General-Secretary contender, Akwasi Agyeman.

The acting Editor of Graphic Business, the business paper of the Graphic Communications Group Ltd, Suleman Mustapha, is seeking to outdo the current Eastern Regional Chairman of GJA, Maxwell Kudekor, in the race for the Organising Secretary slot, while a freelancer and a former journalist at Graphic Online, Zadok Kwame Gyesi, pitches his strength against the Ghana News Agency’s (GNA’s) Caesar Abagali for the Public Affairs position.

In the Treasurer race, it is an all-female affair with GBC’s Theodora A. Amedetor Yakanu pitching her strength against GNA’s Bertha Badu-Agyei for the position.

Regional executives

In the regional executive positions – Chairman, Vice-chairman, Secretary, and Treasurer, 17 out of the 49 candidates are contesting for those positions in the Ashanti, Volta, Central, Upper East, Upper West, and Eastern regions, while 31 of the candidates are going unopposed.

A statement issued by the Chairman of the GJA Elections Committee, Peter Martey Agbeko, said in line with Article 48 (d)(i) of the GJA Constitution, those candidates were deemed duly elected.

Voting modalities

The statement by Mr Agbeko explained that voting would take place at six designated centres in the Greater Accra Region, including the premises of key media organisations such as the Graphic Communications Group Ltd (GCGL), GBC, GNA, Ghanaian Times, the Ghana International Press Centre (GIPC) and Tema.

“There will be 10 other regional centres, with each in the Central, Eastern, Upper East, Upper West, Bono, Bono East, Ashanti, Volta, Northern and Western regions.

At the close of polls, counting will be done at each of the centres,” the statement added.

Results of the regional executive elections would be declared at their respective centres while that of the national executives would be announced and communicated to the Elections Committee through designated platforms for collation at the GIPC for eventual declaration.