Pat McQuaid will now have to appear before an EGM and outline to the grassroots why they should back him for UCI president
UCI president Pat McQuaid has said the decision by Cycling Ireland to call an EGM on his efforts to seek a third term as president of the world governing body is no reflection on his candidacy for the job.
McQuaid has issued a statement saying the board was forced on legal advice to call an EGM, where members of the organisation will vote to grant or refuse his request to Cycling Ireland for a nomination to contest the presidential election later in the year.
McQuaid’s statement was issued last night after the board of Cycling Ireland met and announced it was calling an EGM on the issue.
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That decision was arrived at because it was found the board meeting two weeks ago, where McQuaid was nominated, had not been convened properly and so any decisions made at it were void.
The board could have simply opted to vote again last night and nominate McQuaid – this time on a sound legal basis. However, such has been the backlash against the decision and Cycling Ireland’s perceived poor handling of the matter that the board decided not to vote again last night.
Instead, the members succumbed to pressure and opted to put the matter to an EGM.
Pat McQuaid’s statement reads:
“I was honoured that the board of Cycling Ireland endorsed my nomination as a candidate for the presidency of the UCI earlier this month.”
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“I understand that Cycling Ireland has now decided to refer the matter to an EGM as a result of a technicality arising from the fact that its President (Rory Wyley) temporarily vacated the chair of the nomination meeting so that he could contribute to the meeting under the chair of the CEO (Geoff Liffey).”
McQuaid’s statement continues: “This decision was taken on the basis of legal advice on procedural rules not on the merits of my nomination which the Board has endorsed.”
Board meetings should be held under the chair of the president, or in their absence a vice president or another board member. There is no provision for salaried members of the organisation to chair meetings.
There is no suggestion whatsoever of any deliberate wrong doing on behalf of any of the board or Liffey. The matter appears to have been a technical blunder, albeit an embarrassing one.
Having been UCI president for almost two terms, McQuaid wants to go for election again in September for a third term. When it nominated him two weeks ago, the board did so on condition that McQuaid raise a number of policy issues with the UCI.
One of those was a request by the board that McQuaid work to have a new rule introduced in the UCI stipulating that any person could only serve two terms as president.
The suggestion by Cycling Ireland that any person should only serve two years as UCI president as part of a condition for nominating McQuaid for a third term was regarded by many as farcical.
As things stand McQuaid has no nomination to stand for the presidential election. Because his nomination of two weeks ago was found to have been granted at a meeting with no legal standing, that nomination does not exist and never did. It means the question of rescinding the nomination does not arise.
Cycling Ireland has yet to say when and where the EGM will be held but we will keep you posted on that.
