PASO Prepares for Key Statutes Vote -- On the Scene

(ATR) Pan American Sports Organization leaders tell Around the Rings their executive board meeting ahead of the extraordinary general assembly results in no additions to proposed statute changes.

PASO is meeting in Brasilia Wednesday to pass a new constitution. The assembly will be voting on possible statute changes as well as reviewing its code of ethics.

Members of the PASO delegation visited the Olympic flame before the executive board convened. The boardreviewed the current statutes subject to a vote, received an update on the newly-created PASO finance committee and approved the two candidates for the position of the Americas candidate on the ANOC executive council.

Haiti NOC president Hans Larsen and Puerto Rico Olympic Committee chief Sara Rosario Vélez will run for the position vacated by former Canadian Olympic Committee president Marcel Aubut following his recent resignation.

A number of executive board members told ATR no new statute proposals came from the meeting. No fresh amendments are allowed to be presented during the assembly, they confirmed. This is not surprising given that all 41 member countries of PASO had more than eight months to review potential constitutional changes.

The biggest debate during the assembly is likely to come during the proposed statute changes regarding the distribution of member country’s votes for elected officials and Pan American Games host countries. Currently all countries receive one vote, but member nations which have hosted a Games get an extra vote for every edition they have hosted. Proposed changes include a statute that calls for one member country, one vote for all elections. Another proposal would determine whether previous host countries of the Pan American Games will receive an extra vote.

A two-thirds majority, or 28 votes, is needed to pass any changes to the PASO constitution. PASO executive board members were tight-lipped about how the voting would go.

PASO will look to schedule another general assembly before the end of 2016 to elect a new president, sometime after the Rio Olympics.

After Tuesday's board meeting, the PASO delegation traveled to a special ceremony for the Olympic torch relay held by president Dilma Rousseff. Brazil's embattled leader joined Rio 2016 chief Carlos Nuzman, PASO president Julio Maglione and Brazil's sports minister Ricardo Leyser at the event. They presented each NOC president with a Rio 2016 torch.

In his remarks, Nuzman said the ceremony was conceived by Rousseff to show "the union of the Americas in the capital of Brazil", on the eve of the first Olympics in South America.

Reported by Aaron Bauer in Brasilia

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