BNOC constitution to be amended
Calistus Kolantsho | Tuesday October 10, 2017 14:50
The decision was to the fact that the board has always been voting after being dissolved. The former BNOC president, Negroes Kgosietsile said they requested for advice from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Commonwealth Games board on the matter in 2016. He said the advice from the two international boards was that the BNOC board should not participate in the elections. “We have adopted the advice from IOC and Commonwealth after deliberating on the issue. The board will not vote. It now means the BNOC constitution must be amended to make sure that the clause is clear,” he said.
Botswana Cycling Association (BCA) president, Mmetla Masire said the challenge has been the interpretation of the constitution. He said since the advice from IOC and Commonwealth has been accepted it was only right for the netball motion to also be adopted.
Meanwhile, netball has tabled a similar motion calling for the board not to participate in the elections. The association argued that the BNOC constitution and Olympic charter regulations do not give the current or outgoing board voting rights to participate in the elections.
“Take cognisance that article seven of three constitutions enlists, to the exclusion of the members of the executive committee, ordinary members with voting rights, in terms of which only IOC members are eligible to vote and none of the board members is an IOC member,” reads part of the motion. The motion further reads that in the absence of such crucial provision allowing for the current members of the BNOC to actively participate in the elections, their participation stands to, and should be barred because they do not have the legal status to do so.
BNOC chief executive officer, Tuelo Serufho had also noted that there was a conflict in the constitution in which one article allows the board to vote while the other one does not give the board voting rights.