The Greek Orthodox Community of
Melbourne & Victoria (GOCMV) will likely hold an extraordinary general meeting on July 5.

The issue on the agenda will be the amendment of two
articles of its constitution relating to the electoral system.

The meeting
has been called by 105 members who have signed a petition, with Apostolos
Kounelis and Dimitris Paikopoulos spearheading the initiative.

Initially
this issue had been scheduled to be debated during the extraordinary general meeting
scheduled in May which was also due to consider the members petition calling for early elections.

But a legal representative for Mr Kounelis and Mr
Paikopoulos asked for  this meeting to be canceled as they deemed it
to be unconstitutional. Furthermore, they demanded an extraordinary general meeting be
convened for the sole purpose of considering their petition for changes to the method of election.

However the May extraordinary general meeting 
was cancelled two weeks ago.

In a new letter the GOCMV, Mr Kounelis and Mr Paikopoulos ask for the GOCMV
to act on their petition or face the consequence; that
is that they will organise the extraordinary general meeting themselves and  bind the Community to whatever decisions are taken.

“They have no other choice. This
Meeting has to take place. If the Board does not do it, we’ll do it ourselves,”
stressed Mr Kounelis to Neos Kosmos.

He also clarified that they had asked
for the cancelling of the Extraordinary General Meeting to hold elections
because it was “unconstitutional” and they didn’t want to become entangled “in other
peoples” games”.

Mr Kounelis further suggested that their petition is even
more relevant now because of the mass signing of new members.

“Lately, over
2,000 new members have been signed up in a fashion that is very contrary to
constitutional requirements.

“If elections were to be held with the existing
electoral system, the faction that has signed up more members will manage to
control the Board.

“But if our proposal is approved and a more proportional
electoral system is put in place, no faction will have the absolute control of
the Board,” said Mr Kounelis.

GOCMV President Bill Papstergiadis confirmed to
Neos Kosmos the mass signing of new members, stating that “everybody does it”.

Sources within the GOCMV suggest that on Monday alone 700 new members were
registered in an unprecedented and outright attempt by all factions to boost
their electoral hopes.

“Unconfirmed reports indicate that the father of one
Board member was distributing membership applications like “there’s no
tomorrow”.

This practice, according to experienced Community insiders, will
lead unavoidably to new ‘legal headaches” unless the membership roll is
cleared up.