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Monday, 28 July 2014 21:36 |
FIDE wishes to correct false and misleading allegations made by Ms Ank Santens, observer to the ELE on behalf of the Kasparov ticket, in her observations published on the website kasparov2014.com on the 19 July 2014.
First, the Electoral Commission was welcomed by Ms Santens as “a good development”. After lengthy discussions during the days preceding the 2012 General Assembly in Istanbul, an agreement was reached with Ms Santens regarding the detailed functioning of the Electoral Commission. For example, she required that members of the ELE constituted for an election be precluded from being elected or appointed to any Presidential Board position in that election and this was accepted by FIDE. Ms Santens herself presented and supported before the General Assembly the changes to the Statutes and the Electoral Regulations, including the creation of an Electoral Commission. These amendments were adopted with an overwhelming majority since there were only 6 votes against and 1 abstention. It is therefore particularly inappropriate for Ms Santens to criticise a system after she has played an active and significant role in its introduction.
Moreover, Ms Santens claims that the Electoral Commission members were not in possession of all relevant documentation. This is plainly wrong as all relevant documents, whether they were sent by Ms Santens herself on behalf of the presidential ticket of Mr Kasparov, member federations, state authorities, NOCs or IOC, have been provided to each of the ELE members and to each observers of the presidential tickets. The ELE members therefore had access to all the documents filed and were fully informed. In addition, it shall be noted that the submissions and documents filed by the presidential ticket of Mr Kasparov were sent directly to all ELE members by Ms Santens. FIDE further notes that, contrary to the other Electoral Commission members, Mr Korobeinik and Ms Santens did not consider it useful to visit FIDE office in order to inspect evidence during the ELE meeting held in Athens on 13-14 July 2014. This was either because they were satisfied with the documentation provided or that they were not interested in viewing the evidence.
Finally, FIDE would like to emphasize that it has every confidence in the Electoral Commission, whose members were elected by the Continents and, in the case of the Chairperson, unanimously by the General Assembly in Tallinn.
FIDE trusts that the Electoral Commission has successfully and effectively accomplished its mission, namely to verify who is entitled to vote at FIDE’s Presidential elections in accordance with the Electoral Regulations, and not with regard to the candidate in favour of whom each Delegate may vote.
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