The chief official of the International Olympic Committee’s Ethics and Compliance Committee, Bakrit Gerard Zabelli, said that the presidential elections of the Olympic Council of Asia should be ruled invalid, attributing this to what he described as the interference of the former president of the Olympic Council of Asia, Sheikh Ahmed Al-Fahd.
Reuters quoted a report by the Olympic Council of Asia, saying that Zabelli said that the vote that was held on July 8, in which Sheikh Talal Al-Fahd was appointed president, should be cancelled.
The agency said, citing the report, that the Asian Council must “declare that the elections held on July 8, 2023 are invalid.”
The report noted that in an accompanying letter to Acting President of the Asian Council Randhir Singh, Gerard Zappelli said that Sheikh Talal did not meet the election criteria.
The report stressed that “a review of the electoral process of the Asian Council revealed that Sheikh Talal Al-Fahd did not meet the conditions set by the Council’s constitution,” and that “it should have been announced that the conditions were not met from the beginning.”
