The wrangles between National Council of Sports and Uganda Olympic Committee seem far from getting an amicable solution with both sides failing to find a leveled ground.
Just last week, Uganda Olympic Committee held their General Assembly which ushered in a new executive but the exercise was deemed null and void by the government sports regulatory body (NCS) citing several irregularities hence suspending the process.
On Thursday, NCS chairman Bosco Onyik in a press briefing at the council offices in Lugogo affirmed that as the regulatory body, they will not allow results from a sham election exercise. “
As National Council of Sports, we have about three key issues which we think must be addressed before elections go on,” Onyik said.
First, they should deal only with federations/associations that are fully registered with NCS, the assembly should be fully constituted and address the composition of non- registered entities,” he stated.
According to Onyik, NCS have the mandate to regulate all sports associations of which they must comply with the registration process of the council so as to qualify as legitimate sports authorities.
“Following the gazetting of the National Council of Sports Instrument Cap 38 of 2014,all the sports organizations which wished to promote a given sport in Uganda,” he said.
“So when the said instrument came into force, it became imperative that the composition of the Uganda Olympic Committee should be made up of National sports associations which are recognized by the NCS,” Onyik emphasized.
NCS insist some associations that took part in the UOC general assembly were not registered with them and thus don’t qualify to take part in the due process of elections.
“Following the receipt of various petitions from some recognized National Sports Associations; our attention was drawn to the purported UOC general assembly where nonexistent sports associations were meant to take part in an illegal general assembly/election of the executive committee of the UOC,” Onyik stated.
The associations deemed illegal include Rugby union, Rowing association, Shooting sports Federation, Table tennis association, Weight lifting association, Gymnastic association and Equestrian association who haven’t complied to the new NCS regulation process.
UOC RESPONSE
Chimpsport took an initiative to reach out to the Uganda Olympic Committee president William Blick who downplayed all the reasons that NCS fronted for their decision to call off the general assembly.
Blick indicates that whatever the UOC has been doing is legal and he doesn’t see the cause for alarm.
“We had our nomination process on time and everything moved on smoothly I wonder why the NCS claim the General assembly was illegal,” Blick wondered.
“International Olympic Committee wrote to us in regard to the composition and membership and were very clear on that,” he said. In the letter dated 13 January 2017, IOC provides that the current registration of associations should not affect the affiliation to the national Olympic Committee.
“We fully understand that the national federations have been required by the relevant government authorities to undergo a legal/registration process as per the laws of the land. However, in the meantime, this should affect their existence nor should it affect their affiliation to/ membership of your NOC and their respective International Federations,” reads part of the statement. “
Some of the federations NCS claims are illegal have activities and have recognition from international bodies. For example fencing, we have just received playing equipment from their international body,” Blick indicated.
On the claim that Blick appointed a returning officer who would favour him, he said as UOC they followed the right procedure. “We had a special executive meeting where the returning officer (Sim Katende) was voted and the minutes of that meeting are well documented.
Already, Godfrey Nyakana and Fred Kavuma all from Uganda Boxing Federation filled a case in the high court seeking for legal interpretation.The court hearing is slated for 3rd March 2016.
William Blick was re-elected into office for another four year term in office on Saturday last week unopposed after his main competitor Dennis Mbidde pulled out also citing similar irregularities as the NCS.
Should the wrangles go on, the international Olympic Committee has the mandate to ban Uganda from all their activities.
