AABA has learnt that an inner cabal is to table a motion of 'no confidence' on the President-elect Ray Gardiner. This motion is to be the subject of discussion and vote of an emergency Council meeting on the morning of Thursday, 6th May 1999. The back-stabbers are confident of victory.

ACCA officeholders are not directly elected by members and the Buggins Turn principle rules.  The normal procedure is that the Vice-President becomes the Deputy-President and the Deputy becomes the President at a Council meeting held immediately after the AGM. The 1999 AGM is to be held on 6th May. The emergency meeting is to take place before the AGM.

From a source inside the ACCA, AABA understands that the motion of  'no confidence' is to be moved by an 'inner cabal' consisting of the present and past presidents. These include David Bishop, Peter Langard, David Leonard, Kenneth Duncan and Michael Foulds. The Council will meet behind closed doors with details only being released by the ACCA's 'spin doctors'.

AABA has been informed that 'significant' people within the council had become concerned at Ray Gardiner's plans to bring the Association closer to its members by making it more open, democratic and accountable. He also had proposals to curb the powers of the chief executive (not elected by ACCA members) and reduce the influence of the unelected and unaccountable elites who control the council and use the 'proxy votes' to ensure that their friends and cronies are elected (meaning appointed) to Council.

For daring to modernize the Association, Ray Gardiner is being pushed out. What will they do next? This is their birthday present (64th birthday) to a man who has given 16 years of faithful and flawless service to the ACCA. And they respond with back-stabbing.

Prior to the breaking of the news by AABA, ACCA officials had planned to quietly execute their 'coup' and then announce to the world that Ray Gardiner has stepped down because of 'poor health'. However, now this course is not open to them. It is thought that the prosecutors would use Gardiner's link with Robert Jackson, who was recently the subject of an ACCA disciplinary hearing, as a pretext for the vote of  'no confidence'. This is McCarthyism of the worst kind. On this basis, the courts would be putting the friends and families of all indicted persons in the dock. But then this is the unaccountable elite running the ACCA.