Three additional amendments to Article 51.1 of the UCI constitution will be submitted to the UCI Congress for consideration later this month. One amendments weakens the current amendment that was proposed by the Malaysian National Cycling Federation while two other allow the incumbent president to run without nomination from any Federation.
The UCI has informed all of its national federations that three national federations have submitted amendments to the proposal of the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) to change the wording of Article 51.1 of the UCI Constitution.
These amendments will be submitted to the UCI Congress together with the proposal of MNCF. The UCI Congress will decide whether these proposals are accepted or not.
The MNCF proposed that a candidate for the Presidency should be nominated “either by the federation of the candidate (as is the current text) or by 2 federations other than the federation of the candidate (new clause)”. The MNCF proposal also included a transitional clause which would have allowed all national federations an additional deadline to make nominations under the new clause if it was approved by the Congress. This was done because, when the national federations were informed of the MNCF proposal, the usual deadline for making nominations had already expired.
In a letter dated 16 August 2013, the Secretary General of the Lithuanian National Federation presented a request for the transitional clause to be withdrawn from the MNCF proposal.
The Barbados Cycling Union, in a letter to the UCI dated 27 August, submitted an alternative version of the MNCF proposal in order, as its letter says, “to preserve and safeguard democracy in the organisation”. The Barbados Federation’s amendment says: “The candidate for the Presidency shall be nominated either by the national federation of the candidate, or by two national federations other than the federation of the candidate. The incumbent President shall qualify on the basis of incumbency.”
The Turkish Cycling Federation also submitted an amendment for consideration by the UCI Congress. The Turkish amendment, submitted in a letter dated 28 August, proposes to add the following wording to the MNCF proposal: “The incumbent president has the right to stand for re-election without nominations.” In its letter, the Turkish Federation also made it clear that its amendment, if accepted by Congress, should be applied to the current 2013 election.
All three amendments were received before the cut-off date of 30 August for submissions to the UCI Congress.
Several federations expressed concern about external interference in the elections nominations process. Federations highlighted that under Article 6.4 of the UCI Constitution, national federations must remain autonomous and resist financial and political pressure being put upon them, and that the Constitution also obliges federations to report any interference, or pressure, being put on them. The Federations of Barbados and Turkey made it clear in their letters that it was this concern that prompted their two amendments.
UCI Communications Service
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