THERE MAY BE even fewer votes up for grabs now.
Next week’s Barbados Olympic Association’s (BOA) elections are potentially facing a big shakeup, as the Athletics Association of Barbados put forward a motion to suspend the voting rights of the BOA’s 11-member board of directors.
The AAB tabled the resolution to only allow the 36 affiliate federations to vote at Wednesday’s annual general meeting to avoid any one candidate starting the elections with a possible 11-vote advantage.
According to the motion, the AAB believes that “permitting members of the Board of Directors to vote in their own right appears to be incestuous, non-transparent and affects the impartiality of the voting process, catering more to the self-preservation of the sitting executive.
“The process interferes with the democratic rights of the affiliate members of the body to freely vote for their executive by giving undue weight to a set of individuals who can distort the voting process to the disadvantage of the affiliate members.”
It’s a stunning turn of developments heading into a highly-anticipated general meeting, where outgoing BOA president Steve Stoute won’t be seeking re-election after five successive terms at the helm. (JM)
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