Costa Navarino, Greece (AP) – The IOC is the undisputed champion to run the most firmly managed sports elections, one compared to the Olympic observers of veterans to a conclave to choose Pope.
Some of the seven presidential candidates in the competition on Thursday have broadcast dissatisfaction with receiving limited access to members of the International Olympic Committee during a five -month campaign. The voters themselves will receive minimal updates between the casting circles of secret newsletters on the day of the election.
“It was difficult to engage,” said a presenter, Sebastian Cow, told reporters last week before heading to Greece. “In the future, this just has to be more open and expansive. I think membership deserves this. “
These members are as bizarre and curious teams as the sets of rules for the IOC elections that bind them.
Among the 109 permissible voters in the invitations and the exclusive club of the IOC are members of Royal Family, including Emir of Qatar, former legislators and diplomats, business leaders, including billionaires, current and past Olympic athletes, plus the actress won with Oscar Jeo.
Only members of the IOC can stand as candidates and the long-standing perception is that the output President Thomas Bach has raised a protégé, which hopes to win-even if the favorite game will seem to violate the political neutrality, which the Olympic movement is expensive.
Bach refused to be prepared on Monday in detail when he asked him if he had intervened with the voters on behalf of Kesta Coventry, the two -time gold medalist from Zimbabwe. She will be the first woman and the first African president in the 131-year history of the IOC.
“What I felt obliged to say about the profile of my heir, which I said in Paris,” said Bach, whose practical executive president officially ends in June after the deadlines 12 years.
Seven months ago, at the Paris Olympics, Bach said “New Times is calling for new leaders,” citing the need for an heir immersed in the “technological tsunami” of the digital world.
“I have nothing to add to that,” he said on Monday. He spoke at a press conference after chairing a meeting of his Executive Board, which included three of the seven candidates, including Coventry.
Olympic history
Coventry is the only woman in the race and just the second candidate for women to run the IOC. Thursday’s victory for Zimbabwe Sports Minister will add Bach’s heritage to gender equality policies.
“I don’t feel that he is a campaign for me,” she told reporters in an online call in January, adding that “she had a good relationship with President Bach since 2013.”
Low -key campaign
The IOC election rules have banned candidates from publishing campaign videos, organizing public meetings, or participating in public debate. Voters could not publicly approve their choice.
Applicants were allowed to write a manifesto that the IOC, published on the same day in December, then made only one official presentation of its voters at the headquarters of the Olympic plants in January. Voters could not ask questions after each 15-minute presentation that was not broadcast.
“If I were president, I think I would be a little broad,” said Prince Faisal Al Hussein of Jordan this day in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The seven candidates do not have a formal media event before the vote on Thursday, although everyone will go on Tuesday to the nearby ancient Olympia. An official ceremony there with a Bach speech opens election gatherings, which lasts until Friday.
Closed doors elections
The IOC will cut off the online stream of its meeting at a resort hotel when the choice begins on Thursday around 4:00 pm in Greece (1400 GMT). Members will collect and store their phones and tablets.
Most IOC employees have to leave the room so that only the voters and the main election monitors remain. When the winner comes out, the doors will open, the stream broadcast is re -on and the message is made.
Voting rules
About 100 members must attend and meet the conditions in the first round to give electronic votes. Applicants can vote, but every compatriot cannot stay in the race so long.
The winner must receive an absolute majority that probably won’t happen in the first round. Several rounds may be needed. As long as there is no winner, the candidate with the least votes is eliminated. If there is a draw for the lowest amount, the vote between them will decide who is eliminated.
However, voters will not be told the amounts for each candidate after each round. Instead, Bach “will only announce the name of the candidate, who will not participate in the next round of vote,” the State rules of the IOC.
Bach “will not exercise his right to vote, but reserves the right to vote.”
The next IOC president – only 10th – will enter office on the Olympic Day, June 23, at a ceremony in Lausanne.
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AP Olympiad at https://apnews.com/hub/2024-Paris-lympic-games