Interested parties close to the incumbent leadership of the National Olympic Committee (NOC) are pushing for the induction of new members in order to fix the forthcoming elections, Colombo Telegraph learns.
Hemasiri Fernando
There are moves to offer membership to five sports, namely rugby, modern pentathlon, karate do, roller skating and baseball, the last three of which are not Olympic sports.
There are 26 associations holding membership in the NOC at present and close observers opine that the move to expand membership is prompted by the fear that the 22 year long rule by Hemasiri Fernando and his close associates could come to an end.
The NOC, by virtue of affiliation to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is bound to adhere strictly to IOC bylaws pertaining to membership and voting rights.
The IOC Constitution clearly states under Article 28 (Composition of NOCs) that only ‘the voting majority of an NOC and of its executive body shall consist of the votes cast by the national federations referred to in (paragraph) 1.2 of the Article: all national federations affiliated to the International Federations governing sports included in the programme of the Olympic games or their representatives as well as IOC members in the country who are ex-officio members of the NOC executive body.
As such representatives of national bodies governing sports that are not part of the Olympic programme do not have voting rights. For example, representatives of karate do, roller skating and baseball, even if they obtained membership in the NOC, will not have voting rights.
Furthermore, the Constitution of Sri Lanka’s NOC states that applications for membership are taken up for consideration only at an Annual General Meeting and therefore such applicants cannot have voting rights in the event of there being elections.
Diogenes / January 12, 2018
Has anybody borrowed the old `Jilmaart Machine` from the former President? Don`t forget that it didn`t function properly the last time it was operated.
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Jagath Fernando / January 14, 2018
Guys like Hemasiri knows how to play the political game. He was close to Mahinda and now he survives with this regime as well. He was close to Chandrika as well.
Absolutely no shame when he appeared in front of the bond scheme as chairman of Peoples Bank.
His close buddy is Maxwell and an absolute survivor. These guys are no different to the 225 crooks in parliament.
Why isn’t there an age limit and a maximum no of years where you can hold office ?
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kolla / January 12, 2018
There is no difference between the corrupt politics of the country and the sort politics of this political animal Hemasiri Fernando and his group of parasites.
Sri Lanka’s athletics is at the lowest, but this team goes on. If they had any decency, after our pathetic performance at international competitions they would have resigned. How can they ? For most of our so called sport officials this is their bread and butter !
Now that the law does not allow them to continues in office Hemasiri is trying to install in power at the NOC a hand picked team of business wheeler dealers( so that sports will be in good hands ! Ha ha )
The present Secretary General has not played any sport at a representative level or even a club level.I am told that he was a reserve for a Thurstan College class soft ball cricket side when a teenager. But he pretends to be sport expert and a high class gentleman ! Those who know the truth cannot stop laughing
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Jim softy / January 12, 2018
I think some international business interests are there to push for it.
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K.Pillai / January 12, 2018
Did SL National Olympics Committee (NOC) handle the Susanthika Jaysinghe incident properly? The minster involved is still a minister! Susanthika is all but forgotten.
Olympics team composition is about 30 officials to every athlete. NOC has not fostered athletics in any way.
NOC is past the use-by date. At some stage Wijedasa Rajapaksha was interested.
How about the SriLankan Airlines board and CEO?
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nalmen / January 14, 2018
it was always rigged
they were all life members
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