Ariel Guarco polls highest votes; re-elected ICA President

Ariel Guarco from Argentina has been re-elected as the Chairman of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), in an election held on Monday at the ICA General Assembly in Seville, Spain. He beat his rivals from Australia and France.

Guarco got 445 votes whereas his rivals Melina Morrison, from Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals, Australia and Jean-Louis Bancel, current Vice-President of the ICA received 164 and 160 votes respectively. These figures are, however not official and have been taken from various social media platforms.

The election was carried out manually due to a technical issue with the online voting system.

As soon as his name was announced, the Indian Co-operators, among others rushed to greet Gaurco on his victory. More than two dozen Indian co-operators are in Spain attending the ICA General Assembly which will conclude on 22nd June 2022.

The elections of other board members of ICA are also going on but the results are awaited. Twenty-two candidates are standing for 15 seats on the board and from India IFFCO Board Member Aditya Yadav is also in the race for grabbing a berth on the board of the International Body.

Meanwhile, National and International users are busy congratulating him through social media. “Ariel Guarco is re-elected the @icacoop president for the second term. Nepali cooperative movement is looking forward to cooperatively working with you for bettering the best alternative available in re-engineering the socio, economic, cultural and ecological life of the members”, one of the users wrote.

Guarco is also president of the Confederación Cooperativa de la República Argentina (Cooperar). He has been involved in co-ops since the 1980s when he started to actively participate in the electric cooperative of his city, Coronel Pringles.

He was elected president of the co-op in 1997 and president of the federation (Fedecoba) that integrates electric co-operatives in the province of Buenos Aires in 1998. He became president of Cooperar in 2011 and was elected to the board of the International Cooperative Alliance in 2013.

Before the voting, all the Presidential candidates presented their visions of cooperatives. Ariel Guarco presented his report including meetings with members from all around the globe during his tenure.

Earlier, Gaurco said “Since 2017, as President of ICA, I have been fortunate to work with great Board Members who have dedicated their talents and time to advancing the cooperative identity. I would like to express my gratitude for your contribution to the global cooperative movement!”.

ICA Director-General Bruno Roelants shared the report of the ICA secretariat now underlining the work implemented for the World Cooperative Congress on the first day of the General Assembly.