Pat McQuaid is clearly determined not to go down without a fight and is now a member of four cycling federations
The election for the UCI presidency has taken a strange twist, with a proposal now under consideration that would allow incumbent Pat McQuaid run for a third term even if he were to lose the nomination of Swiss Cycling.
It has also now emerged that the Irishman is a member of no fewer than four national cycling federations.
His membership of Cycling Ireland and Swiss Cycling were already public knowledge but a press release from the UCI has revealed he is also a member of the Thai and Moroccan federations.
And it is these two federations who are now set to combine to nominate him to run for election under a new rule that, if passed, would be backdated to make the nomination legal despite the deadline for such nominations having passed at the end of last month.
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McQuaid had originally received the backing of Cycling Ireland to run for the election to be held in September. However, it later emerged that that backing was void because the meeting where the board voted had not been convened properly.
By the time the Cycling Ireland board had met again, such was the pressure on them to call an EGM and let members decided that they eventually decided on that course of action.
However, before that EGM was held McQuaid announced he had secured a nomination from Swiss Cycling to run for election. That move, at the time, effectively made the outcome of the Irish vote meaningless.
When Irish delegates met on June 15th, they voted 91:74 against nominating him. It then emerged McQuaid's nomination by Swiss Cycling was being legally challenged. That process is ongoing.
On the face of it, if the Swiss backing was lost then McQuaid would not be able to run for election because under current rules any candidate can only be nominated by their home federation or by the federation in the country where they reside. McQuaid lives in Switzerland.
Any loss of the Swiss backing would have left the way clear for the only other candidate in the race – British Cycling president Brian Cookson – to run unopposed.
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However, it appears the rules may now be changed and that change back dated.
Under the proposal, from the Malaysian federation, an additional avenue of securing a nomination would be put in place. As well as the current procedures, any two federations could effectively group together and nominate a candidate to run for the office of UCI president.
If the proposal is passed at the UCI congress in September – when the presidential election is also to be held – it would be backdated. That means any candidate nominated by two federations between now and the end of August would be allowed to contest the election.
Under the current rules, nominations must be in place 90 days before the election; a date that has long passed for the upcoming election in late September.
The UCI has said in a statement this evening that it is making an exception to the 90-day rule only on this one occasion. In future the 90-day rule will apply to two federations nominating a candidate if that provision is passed in September.
It explained the reason for the exemption as follows: “As national federations are being informed about this proposal after the original deadline to nominate presidential candidates has passed, as a transitional provision, for the 2013 Presidential elections only, the new amendment also proposes to allow any two national federations to put forward candidates from now until a deadline of Friday 30 August 2013 at 12:00 CEST. These nominations will then become valid if the motion is subsequently approved at Congress. In future elections, the new rule, if adopted, will apply with the standard nomination deadline of 90 days before Congress.”
That statement from the UCI also revealed that as well as being nominated by Swiss Cycling, McQuaid has also been nominated by the Thai Cycling Association and the Fédération Royale Marocaine de Cyclisme.
It means if the Swiss backing falls, the backing of the Thais and the Moroccans would be enough to allow McQuaid contest the vote at the UCI congress in Italy at the World Championships in September as long as congress at that meeting votes in favour of the Malaysian federations proposal – presented by the Asian Continental Confederation - that any two federations should be allowed to nominate a candidate for any UCI presidential election.
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