The turnout at the Poona Parsee Panchayat (PPP) trusteeship elections to be held on October 20, 2024 two-and-a-half years after the last one remains a question mark. Ten contestants, Farokh Phiroze Chinoy, Hoshang Rustom Irani, Marazban Khodabux Irani, Tirandaz Neville Irani, Homi Jehangir Kekobad, Jamshed Padshah Karkaria, Khursheed Sarosh Mistry, Shahrookh Nadir Mistry, Yezdi Farokh Motiwalla and Bakhtiar Dara Narielwalla are competing for the seven vacant seats left by the previous trustees who either resigned or stepped down once the board was dissolved. Only trustee Motiwalla remained in office and has offered himself for reelection. A maverick, his tendency to act independently annoyed some of his co-trustees and reportedly led a few of them to relinquish their seats.
This is reportedly the first time the elections will be conducted by the Charity Commissioner’s (CC) office and will be held at the Sardar Dastur Boys School instead of the PPP offices as had always been the case. With no functioning board, community members had to approach the CC to hold the elections. The process took around a year to fructify.
As the only functioning trustee on the board Motiwalla has been signing cheques, enabling the trust to continue functioning and office salaries to be paid. Four candidates — Kekobad, Karkaria, Shahrookh Mistry and Narielwalla — are contesting, as a group using an hourglass as their symbol while the remaining six are said to be independents.
The manifesto issued by Narielwalla states his agenda includes improving facilities for PPP tenants, removing the encroachments outside the hostel building, developing PPP lands "to prevent encroachments,” easy accessibility to trustees and supporting and sponsoring youth activities.
Motiwalla in his WhatsApp chat group cautioned voters that some of the candidates allegedly had "a hidden agenda” to amend the present constitution "which would undermine the fundamental principles that protect the trust and its rightful beneficiaries.” These included extending the trustees’ term from three to five years.
Aside from generalities, Motiwalla’s manifesto talks specifically about "converting one vacant flat into a dormitory for the desperate, needy and homeless Zoroastrians” and "initiating solar power energy in J. J. Colony.”
Manifestos of other candidates were not available to Parsiana at the time of going to press.