The Maltese Olympic Committee (MOC) have no plans to reschedule this week’s election despite the objections raised by a group of six candidates who are arguing that the process goes against the statute.
On Thursday, 17 candidates will be vying for the eight spots on the executive committee in a vote involving all affiliated federations within the MOC fold.
However, the build-up to the election has been blighted by a series of protests as some of the candidates have persistently contested the validity of the elections and the time-frames adopted by the MOC as the nominations were being submitted.
Earlier this month, the MOC decided to postpone the election, originally pencilled in for April 7, to this Thursday.
That way, the MOC deemed, they will stay in line with article 10.3 that states there should be 28 days between the closing of nominations and the date of the Elective General Assembly.
This came after an official protest lodged by Anthony Caruana, Vince Scicluna, Branko Vlahovic, Johanna Grech, Marie Therese Zammit, Kenneth Abela and Envic Galea, all candidates for the Exco elections.
However, it seems the MOC decision did not appease most of the protesting group as they are still contending that the election date established goes against the regulations.
“This proposal (to hold the Elective Council Meeting on April 23) still violates article 10.3,” they said in a letter sent to MOC secretary general Joe Cassar.
“Furthermore your decision to reschedule the meeting for April 23 now also violates article 8.7 of the MOC statute.
“Therefore, the meeting for the said date goes against the statute,” they added in reference to the new Elective General Meeting date issued on April 6.
Article 8.7 states that the secretary general has to inform those entitled to attend by means of a circular to be sent by not later than 60 days prior to the Elective General Meeting.
Julian Pace Bonello, the MOC president, yesterday dismissed the latest objections and said the elections will be held as planned.
“After taking further legal advice, the MOC feels that we are not in breach of the statute,” he said.
“We have taken the decision to move the date of the election to ensure that we respected article 10.3 in particular. Added to that, claims that we have breached article 8.7, which states that there should be at least 60 days between the notice of the election and the day of voting, are completely unfounded.
“We issued the notice of the election on January 28, so we have more than honoured the 60-day timeframe.”