James Bakama
18 July 2011
WORLD amateur boxing vice president Abdallah Bessalem has advised the domestic body UABF to review its constitution and thereafter have fresh elections.
The AIBA official wants the polls to be held within three months.
Bessalem, who wound up investigations into Uganda’s boxing wrangles, told a press conference at Lugogo on Saturday that each of the UABF factions has a constitution conflicting with the world body’s statutes.
Qualification of clubs to the assembly, exclusion of personalities attached to the professional ranks and establishment of an electoral commission to conduct polls are some of the provisions that Bessalem wants included in the new UABF constitution.
For starters, the AIBA envoy wants a constitutional review committee comprising of one member from each of the two factions, an NCS official, a lawyer and a Uganda Olympic Committee representative.
The revised constitution will have to first be endorsed by AIBA. This is in line with a decision taken by the AIBA general assembly in 2007. It is only after this adoption that an electoral process agreeable with AIBA will start.
Bessalem will present his proposals to AIBA’s executive in a fortnight. AIBA will thereafter release the final guidelines. He warned that failure to adhere to the road map could result in Uganda’s suspension from AIBA.
But while the Dr. Ntege Ssengendo’s UABF faction, Sports State minister Charles Bakkabulindi and NCS welcomed the proposed roadmap to normalcy, the other group led by Godfrey Nyakana snubbed Bessalem’s proposals.
But Nyakana accused Bessalem of being partial and insisted that they would go ahead with their activities. Nyakana’s group refused to sign a memorandum of understanding.
AllAfrica – All the Time