Crucial vote for current UCI president will take place on June 15th
Pat McQuaidFour days after its announcement that it would put its nomination of Pat McQuaid as UCI president on hold and would instead call an extraordinary general meeting to debate the subject, Cycling Ireland has made formal that arrangement.
The Irish federation has announced that it will hold the EGM in the Red Cow hotel in Dublin on June 15th. There, member clubs will vote on the following resolution:
“That Mr. Pat McQuaid be and is hereby nominated by Cycling Ireland to stand as a candidate for the Presidency of the UCI at the 2013 UCI Congress and that the said nomination be executed and submitted forthwith by the Board of this Company.”
Member clubs will directly influence Cycling Ireland via that vote, with the federation being bound by the outcome of their decision.
On Friday April 26th the board of Cycling Ireland met to consider the matter. It had previously decided five votes to one [and one abstention] to back McQuaid in his request for a nomination for election, a necessary step for the Irishman to run again.
Anto Moran was the one board member who voted no, and who subsequently resigned after that April 12th meeting.
He told VeloNation last week that he had requested to CI that it reconsider its vote, believing that in allowing a non-board member to chair the meeting, that it had broken Article 42 of Cycling Ireland’s Memorandum and Articles.
“At the meeting, it was mentioned about the memo and arts and that the directors should be up to speed on that. After the meeting I got a copy and went through it. I then noticed that there was a discrepancy at the original meeting,” Moran explained.
“I was talking to some other guys and they were going the route of getting the clubs to call an EGM. I wrote to Cycling Ireland on Monday asking them to call an EGM on the basis that the original meeting was out of order.
Cycling Ireland subsequently did that, and today’s announcement gives the place and date for the crucial EGM vote.
Contacted by VeloNation today, Moran said that he and others will seek to get their thoughts out there prior to the meeting. “We won’t speak to clubs directly, but will do it through various media such as Facebook. We will set out the various reasons why we think that clubs should vote against the motion. There is a lot of information out there that we will have to present clubs with.
“With me, it has always been an issue of accountability…that someone at head of such an organisation should be accountable, given everything that went on,” he added, referring to the Armstrong/US Postal Affair and other issues.
On Saturday McQuaid commented on Cycling Ireland’s action. “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,” he stated then, seeking to underline that the board had not reversed its original decision.
However the board could simply have voted for him again on Friday, making sure to stay within the guideline of Article 42. Instead it decided to put the matter to its members.
Moran said it was far too soon to determine how CI’s clubs would vote, but said that the quick response from 31 clubs last week calling for an EGM may be reflective of a mood for change within the sport.
“Obviously Pat will have his story to tell,” he said. “For me, the most important thing is that we have a debate on it, that clubs listen to what their members say and then vote accordingly at the EGM.”
If McQuaid subsequently does not secure nomination from Cycling Ireland, he can also request the same from the Swiss federation as he lives there.
It remains to be seen if he will wait until the outcome of the June 15th EGM or if he will try to secure the Swiss nomination beforehand.
Thus far no challengers have put their names forward for the UCI elections, which will take place in Italy in September. Several individuals are thought to be considering running against McQuaid, but have not declared their candidature as yet.