The voting of the new managing committee of the Greek Orthodox Community of South Australia (GOCSA) last Sunday was fraught with infighting and complications after outgoing President Vassilis Elovaris was accused of money fraud by nominee Ioannis Lesses.
The accusation followed an article that appeared in The Advertiser titled ‘Home’s funds not used for service’ that claimed the GOCSA was not using the government money intended for Ridleyton Greek Home for the Aged for the right purposes. Elovaris responded to these claims in a statement stating the accusations were “completely false and without foundation” The outcome of the election was announced on Wednesday night, but immediately following, a member of the community demanded a recount. The recount proved that the first outcome was correct.
Nikos Portellos is newly elected president of GOCSA, Evanglos Boyias is the vice president, Argyros Kassouthakis is the secretary and Panagiotis Tsonis is the treasurer. Having vice president Boyias elected in the new managing committee may present problems for an agreement to be formed with GOCSA and the Archdiocese as Boyias is well-known within the Greek community of having a hard stance against merging the two.
The fear within the community is that GOCSA will take a step back not only in forming an agreement but in having a committee quite entrenched with an old school mentality that may prevent GOCSA moving with the times.
