A week ago, 7News told you about the impending elections for the Belize Cycling Association which will to be held using the federation rules which had been under dispute, but are now finally accepted.
The process is now underway and on Sunday, the elections were held to field Federation representatives for the western region. Incumbent and embattled cycling Association president, Emil Moreno, was re-elected, along with the Vice-President candidate on his slate, Gilroy Requena.
One of the candidates, Daniel Cano, has since come forward to protest the results based on an irregularity. In his formal protest letter to the elections' oversight body, the National Olympic Committee, he says that the committee's representatives allowed a mass registration on Sunday, and allowed them to vote in the elections.
Today, Cano, whose protest has been documented, and is being allowed a hearing by the NOC, spoke to 7News. He explained why those members who registered on Sunday should not have been allowed to vote.
Daniel Cano - Vice President Aspirant, Cycling West
"I did a larger protest at that election, even before the election started on the grounds that on the morning of the elections there was a mass registration of new members to be able to vote in that elections. My concern is that goes contrary to what was agreed at a special general meeting held on March 2nd where there was cut off deadline of March 11th where people had to register by then to vote in the elections. You could still register afterward and be a member of the association but you would not be able to vote if you weren't registered by March 11th.
So contrary to that, a bunch of people were registered on Sunday and were allowed to vote by the committee conducting the elections. So we have protested to the National Olympic Committee because they have oversight of the elections and I've since been informed that the protest will be heard by the National Olympic Protest Committee. By rough count over twenty to thirty persons newly registered, the elections themselves, there were votes for two positions, the President and the Vice President. The margin of victory was less than the amount of new people registered, so clearly those new people was what swung it either way. For the Vice President, it was less than 10, so even closer yet. The elections themselves, I have no issue with, it's just that this one problem with these people allowed to vote when it was agreed otherwise, documented otherwise, publicized otherwise. I just have a great difficulty with trying to pull a fast one to change the goal post at the last minute."
The outcome that Cano is hoping for is that the elections be redone without these members who registered late. His challenge has been picking up traction with other members of the cycling fraternity, particularly the interim committee members who were appointed by the Ministry of Sport to govern races after the failed elections in November. The National Olympic Committee has not provided a date as yet when the protest will be heard.
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