African NOCs Election Challenged Amid New Disclosures

(ATR) Aicha Garad Ali says in a letter to the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa that communication from the IOC was excluded ahead of the 2017 General Assembly, undermining the assembly’s integrity.

As President of the Djibouti National Olympic Committee, Ali is calling for an extraordinary assembly "to deliberate on" the results of the last ANOCA presidential election. In a letter her office supplied to Around the Rings, Ali says she wants the extraordinary session during the 2017 Association of National Olympic Committees General Assembly this November in Prague.

Ali believes the election was tainted by the failure to disclose a decision from the IOC Ethics Commission and the dissemination of information that may have been planted to discredit the ANOCA presidential candidacy of Hamad Kalkaba Malboum, president of the Cameroon NOC.

The executive board of ANOCA disqualified Malboum from the election, leaving incumbent Lassana Palenfo as the only candidate.

Ali says that the situation led to a "case of unprecedented gravity which could [have introduced] chaos and confusion in my country."

Ali says the only remedy is to convene an extraordinary General Assembly.

A memo, the veracity of which is in question, alleged Malboum used government funds to pay for his ANOCA presidential bid.

At the time Malboum said the leaking of the document was done by a "cabal…on the ANOCA Executive Committee to get me out of the race".

The source of the damaging memo is being questioned after a Tunisian delegate to the ANOCA assembly said the documents were slipped under his hotel room door.

According to Djibouti NOC Secretary General Faissal Raguib, security footage showed "there was no such thing as documents slipped under any room."

Emails provided by Raguib indicate that the IOC Ethics Commission declined to get involved in the ANOCA dispute, saying it was a matter for the continental association to sort out internally.

Ali says the communication from the IOC Ethics Commission was kept from members of the ANOCA Executive Board.

Requests for comment to both Malboum and ANOCA President Palenfo by ATRwere not returned by press time.

The ANOCA Executive Committee ruled that the evidence in the document against Kalkaba was enough to bar him from standing for the presidency. According to a letter from Algerian NOC President Mustapha Berraf, seen by ATR, the committee also revoked Kalkaba’s accreditation and referred the case to the IOC Ethics Commission. Berraf said that the decision was taken without Kalkaba or Palenfo in the room.

"Finally, should the Ethics Commission find in your favor it would be your right to seek recourse through another election for the position of President by way of an extraordinary General Assembly which can be convened as provided for in the Statutes," Berraf’s letter stated.

The IOC Ethics Commission received ANOCA’s request on May 7, and responded to the body the next day. According to Ali in the letter, this communication was never delivered to the African NOCs to be discussed at the General Assembly. A further communication from the IOC Ethics Commission, referencing the May 8 decision was given to ANOCA on Aug. 2.

The August decision was delivered to all of the African NOCs, prompting Ali to draft the letter. The request for an extraordinary assembly will have to be approved by two-thirds of the 54 African NOCs according to ANOCA statues.

"Our President believes the General Assembly as the supreme organ, according to ANOCA, was misled and not allowed to exercise its constitutional rights," Raguib said.

"Our President, after receiving all the information, felt everyone including herself had been deceived and manipulated in this matter.

"Our President thinks that she was unnecessarily subjected to a preventable traumatic situation.

"Our President believes that the integrity and dignity of our continent was insulted."

Homepage Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Written by Aaron Bauer

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