Council orders athletics polls
The Malawi National Council of Sports has directed the Athletics Association of Malawi (AAM) to hold its long-overdue elections before the end of this year if it is to continue enjoying government financial support.
AAM executive remains in office almost a year after its four-year mandate expired in October last year.
The association was initially expected to hold elections in November 2021, but were postponed after the Sports Council demanded that AAM should only conduct the polls after the amending its constitution as proposed by its affiliates.
Sports Council spokesperson Edgar Ntulumbwa yesterday said since AAM amended its constitution some months ago, they expect the elections to be done within this year.
“Since what caused the postponement has finally been sorted out, we should not wait much longer before the polls are conducted to avoid jeopardising athletics operations,” he said.
AAM general secretary Frank Chitembeya yesterday said in an interview they will do their best to go by the Sports Council’s directive.
He said AAM has wants to hold the elections on December 17.
Chitembeya said: “We admit that the polls are indeed long overdue. We will do as directed by Sports Council.
“Meanwhile, we have come up with a roadmap to the polls, which will start with the adoption of the amended constitution later this month before the regional polls in October.”
Prior to the postponement, some AAM affiliates complained to the Sports Council that the elections could not be conducted in a free and fair manner since some articles in their constitutions made it easy for incumbent committee members to manipulate voters.
One of the most contentious articles allowed members of sub-committees, who were appointed by the elected executive committee members, to vote during an elective general assembly.
This was seen as something that compromised the sub-committees loyalty because they could be swayed to vote for individuals that appointed them.
Before the recent amendment of the constitution, the athletics governing body was been dodgy on the issue for over eight years.
