Trouble looms ahead of GOC election

Accra, Oct. 10, GNA - Trouble could loom as the Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) readies for Congress to elect officers to steer the affairs of the organization for the next four years.

The incumbent Board led by Mr Benson Tongo Baba has fixed the Congress= for Saturday, October 29 in Kumasi but the guidelines as spelt out in the roadmap to the much-awaited assembly is likely to stoke fire.

The seven-page guidelines which quotes Article 11 (3) of the GOC constitution states

that 91all officers of the executive board shall be eligible for re-election irrespective of the fact that they no longer belong to any federation' and also provided other requirements that is inconsistent with the constitution.

The sixth requirement of the roadmap, which says 91persons vying for the position as officers of the Executive Board should have served as members of the Executive Board of the GOC of their Federation for a period not less than four years, is non-existent in the GOC's constitution.

Contrary to the GOC constitution's Article 11 (10) that states, =91officers and the members of the Executive Board shall be elected at the general assembly, (Congress) which shall take place after each summer Olympic Games by open secret ballot by a majority of the votes cast,' the guideline is demanding that a candidate obtains more than 50 percent of valid votes to emerge as winner.

receive massive agitation is the introduction of the vetting sub-committee and arbitration sub-committee, which apart from the fact that it is a novelty in the GOC's electoral history has not been captured in the constitution.

The GOC, however, seems to be drawing their strength of constituting the formation of the sub-committees from Article 12 (4) which states 91as part of the functions of the Executive Board, appointment of sub committees as the GOC may deem fit.' Similarly, the roadmap bars any person(s) with political affiliation from contesting the election which seeks to elect over 28 officers.

Even though this part of the requirement is also not captured in the constitution, the guideline insisted 91no candidate shall hold any office in a political party or any organization established for political purpose'. The Congress, the highest decision making body of the GOC is expected to elect members for the positions of President, three Vice Presidents, Secretary-General, Assistant Secretary-General, Treasurer and Assistant Treasurer. It will be the second for Ghana in two years following the abortive one held in June 2009 that plunged the organization into turmoil and a protracted impasse. The IOC in August lifted a-year ban on Ghana after the passage of the Sports Bill by Parliament, an issue the global outfit ranked as a condition for the lifting of the ban to pave way for the Congress.

The IOC, citing political interference in the administration of the Ghana Olympic Committee, (GOC) suspended the nation from its membership in January. Ghana was suspended following concerns with the country's sports law, which the IOC found incompatible with the principles and rules of the Olympic Charter and what the global body deemed as a lack of commitment to revising the sports legislation before the end of 2010.

In July, a meeting involving officials from the IOC, the government of Ghana and the GOC led by Mr Baba held in Lausanne, Switzerland, saw the IOC instructing Ghana to pass the Bill and willed the latter to facilitate a Congress within eight weeks. The passage of the Sports Bill, which ranked high on the roadmap of the international body, was thus to bring Ghana's regulation in conformity with the IOC.