On the Scene in Daegu -- IAAF Leaders Unable to Explain Vote Fiasco

(ATR) IAAF General secretary Pierre Weiss takes full responsibility for the defective electronic voting system that forced re-votes in two key elections Wednesday.

Sergey Bubka of Ukraine was re-elected as a vice president after losing his seat in the initial vote, while Abby Hoffman of Canada lost in the do-over. The election for honorary treasurer was also repeated.

"We did all the tests which we could imagine," Weiss said of the new system."Yesterday morning 230 students from universities tested it and it worked perfectly."

That night, representatives from 128 federations showed up for a test run. Again, the system worked without a hitch.

"I don't have a reply why this did not work today," Weiss said, adding that the IAAF has four years until the next Congress in Moscow to fix the problem.

The voting delayed the Congress with paper balloting, which took a full day in the past. The process was a major headache for Weiss, who is working his last IAAF Congress prior to retirement.

IAAF president Lamine Diack praised Daegu organizers for the upcoming World Championshpis and said the "main and sole problem" at the Congress "has been with the technology."

However, he added, "I'm not embarrassed by the elections and their conduct. We would have preferred the technology had worked better. This is just a technological glitch. There is nothing else involved and we just have to live with it."

There were rumblings that the re-vote was aimed at helping Bubka remain an IAAF vice president, which is considered a springboard to succeeding Diack when he leaves the post.

"I'm not a great believer in conspiracy theories," said Sebastian Coe of Great Britain, who also has ambitions to become IAAF president. "Clearly something wasn't working."

With five candidates vying for four spots as vice president, Dahlan Jumman Al Hamad of Qatar and Hoffman got 175 votes apiece, Robert Hershof the U.S. received 171 and Coe finished with 167, according to the electronic system.

Bubka was seemingly eliminated with only 118 votes.

"That struck me as being implausible. I just was astonished by that," Hersh said.

Further evidence of a problem came when 199 voters cast 210 votes in the race for honorary treasurer, and one candidate dropped 52 votes between rounds.

"That does not happen in the real world," Hersh said. "It just defied credibility. We just all looked at each other and said, 'What's going on?'"

Bubka appeared crushed by the initial outcome. Once he was safely ensconced back on the IAAF Council, he smiled broadly and shook hands with well-wishers.

Bubka said "relief" was not an emotion he felt. "I knew it will be because of a technical mistake," he said, "because it must be some reason."

Bubka added that he couldn't understand how he could have been eliminated because he has been working hard. "If you're doing something bad, yes," he said.

The top vote-getter typically is named senior vice president by the Council, but the president can recommend any one he wants. The senior VP spot will be announced Sept. 4 in the closing press conference for the championships.

The whole process of choosing the vice president took more than three hours. "I was just beginning to lose the will to live halfway through the afternoon," Coe joked, "so it was quite nice to get a result.

"I've won general elections and lost general elections in about a quarter of the time."

Coe said he believes a candidate for IAAF president must come out of the vice presidential ranks. After he is finished organizing the 2012 London Games, Coe will be unemployed. "If I have 10 productive years outside of family and other commitments, I want to devote them to track and field," he said. "I was very clear about that."

Written and reported in Daegu by Karen Rosen