AIBA Approves All Seven Presidential Candidates

(ATR) In just a month the new president of the International Boxing Association (AIBA) will be elected from among the seven candidates approved on Thursday by its Election Committee.

The chairman of the AIBA Election Committee and head of the Ethics Commission, Bernhard Welten from Switzerland, affirmed that all the nominated candidates are eligible to run for the position.

'We had a very responsible mission to verify the eligibility of each candidate carefully and accurately. We have no doubt that each of the seven nominees is a suitable candidate to serve as AIBA president should he be elected," said Welten, a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The National Federations will make their choice on December 12 "and we will see that the entire process is carried out in accordance with the AIBA Statutes and Regulations," said Welten.

The Election Committee is also made up of lawyers Catherine Ordway (Australia) and Francois Strydom (South Africa).

The seven certified candidates are (listed according to the order in which they made their public announcements): Suleyman Mikayilov (Azerbaijan), Bienvenido Solano (Dominican Republic), Anas Al Otaiba (United Arab Emirates), Boris Van der Vorst (Netherlands), Umar Kremlev (Russia), Ramie Al-Masri (Germany) and Mohamed Moustahsane (Morocco).

Before publishing this note on the official site, Around the Rings had access to the Committee's letter to the candidates, signed by Dr. Welten, early this Thursday.

The letter announced that the applicants met the eligibility criteria after the Election Committee "reviewed the nominations and deliberated in accordance with the statutes and regulations of AIBA and the established electoral procedures".

The analysis was carried out between November 3 and 11 "through electronic communications".

The AIBA Ordinary Congress will be held virtually on December 12 and 13.

A total of 143 out of 200 AIBA National Federations are eligible to vote and participate in the Congress.

Fifty-seven National Federations from the five continents were left without the right to vote or attend the forum that will also approve necessary reforms due to a failure to pay membership fees, according to an official statement.

The Confederation of the Americas registered only 21 NFs out of a total of 43, making it the region with the highest number of absences (22).

Moustahsane, AIBA interim president since March 2019 after Uzbek Gafur Rakhimov was pressured to resign, surprised with his announcement on November 2, the deadline to enter the race.

ATR learned that the president of the Mexican Boxing Federation, Ricardo Contreras, sent a letter to all the National Federations, and to the Executive Committees of the IOC, AIBA and ASOIF, with harsh criticism against Moustahsane.

Contreras believes that with his decision to run, Moustahsane becomes "judge and party" in this important process for Olympic Boxing.

In 2019, the IOC suspended the recognition of AIBA within the Olympic Games program, and also excluded it from the organization of qualifying tournaments for Tokyo 2020, due to problems of governance, ethics, transparency in the work of referees and judges, and financial stability.

The IOC, which has repeatedly hinted that a new leadership should implement the reforms that would restore AIBA's standing within the Olympic body, will be very attentive to what happens in a month from now.

Written and reported by Miguel Hernandez

For general comments or questions,click here.

Your best source of news about the Olympics is AroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.