IOC Makes Strong Warning to Panama

(ATR) The International Olympic Committee recognizes Damaris Young as the new president of the Olympic Committee of Panama (COP) and "energetically" rejects the violation of the autonomy of the national Olympic entity.

Young, a former national basketball team member and jurist specializing in Sports Law and Management, is the first woman to lead the national Olympic movement and the first in Central American Olympic history.

She is the 16th president of the COP since its foundation in 1934. Since 2014 she has been legal and management advisor to the COP, since 2015 a member of the IOC Athlete Environment Commission, and since 2016, president of the Appeals Panel for the International Volleyball Federation (FIVB).

In 2020 Young was elected as one of the three independent experts of the new Reform and Governance Commission of the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF).

"Without working as a team, you can't move on. Now we have to turn the page and all of us focus on what is really essential," Young told Around the Rings.

Following the official reaction of the IOC and the Independent Electoral Commission, Young and the new executive board will lead the COP until 2024. The positions of secretary general and treasurer are pending a new vote after a tie between the candidates in the elections held December 12.

For those elections, which were held in person and broadcast online for eight hours, the IOC President, Thomas Bach, appointed Paraguayan and IOC member Camilo Pérez López Moreira as an observer.

Young obtained 37 votes and the other candidate, Saúl Saucedo, 36. A blank vote was crucial in the election for the presidency because whoever aspired to win needed 38 votes to reach 50 percent plus one

Young appealed to the Olympic Charter and Saucedo suggested a second round or new elections, from that moment on the process was blocked amid complaints of alleged government interference.

In this context, an IOC official Jerome Poivey , opined that "blank votes should not be counted as part of validly cast votes," a recommendation that endorsed Young's position.

The outgoing president of the COP, Camilo Amado, then announced that he would submit a report on the electoral process to the IOC so that it would recognize the members of the COP Board of Directors for the 2021-2024 four-year period and that for those positions that are not recognized, a second round.

As a result, the IOC published the letter of support for the COP requests, in which it congratulated Young and the holders of the COP leadership positions "duly elected on that occasion".

The letter, signed by James MacLeod, director of Olympic Solidarity and NOC Relations, expressed "serious concerns" with accusations appearing in the local press about "potential interference" by the government in the COP election process.

The IOC said it trusts that the competent authorities of Panama will carry out an appropriate investigation to clarify this situation and that corresponding actions will be taken to verify that these irregularities have actually been committed by government officials.

"We energetically reiterate the position that we had already clearly expressed in a letter of December 8, 2020 to the Director General of PANDEPORTES," said the IOC letter.

"The election process of the COP must be free from any undue external interference and the autonomy of the COP must be fully respected by the governmental authorities in accordance with the fundamental principles and provisions of the Olympic Charter."

Written and reported by Miguel Hernandez

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