Serial Annulments of Federation Elections: Oversight Commission or Arbitrary Decisions?

The repeated annulment of sports federation elections has raised serious concerns about the future of sports in Iran.

Annulment of federation elections is not a new issue. We have witnessed this happening in many cases in recent years, but what is happening these days is extremely worrying.

Federation elections are held based on a specific process, although since Ahmed Dunyamali's presence in the Ministry of Sports, a different procedure was adopted, and with the selection of the supervisor, the federations enter the election phase. A topic that has its pros and cons, which of course is not the place to discuss it in this article.

What we want to address here is the successive cancellation of elections; A worrying incident that will definitely challenge our country's sports.

On this recent day, the elections of three Taekwondo, Equestrian and Bodybuilding federations have been annulled by the court's decision. Earlier, the university federation elections were definitely canceled. According to the existing complaints, it is said that one or two other federations may suffer the same fate.

Judiciary authorities generally examine the election in terms of form and not content in the first place and invalidate it. In the sense that if the election process does not proceed according to what is stated in the law, the seal of "cancelled" will be applied to it.

It is possible that the annulment decision of all the mentioned federations may be confirmed or broken in the appeals court, but even if the decision is returned, who will be responsible for the costs and energy spent during this time? It is natural that when the election of a federation is invalidated, the federation unconsciously focuses on this direction and neglects its main tasks.

One of the points about the election process is a commission called the "Compliance Commission of the Ministry of Sports" and the youth. This commission has the duty to examine the qualifications of the candidates from a managerial (not security) point of view, but it seems that sometimes taste takes the place of the law, otherwise this volume of cancellations would not have occurred. Although in the case of some federations, there is also the issue of not confirming security, but what has been seen from the matching commission has created the belief that if the Ministry of Sports does not agree with the participation of a person in the elections, he will be removed at this stage. There are examples of this kind that can be cited if necessary.

Even if a person has a problem in terms of competence and security, it is the duty of the matching commission to take action and remove him. After checking the management qualification, the security qualification of the people is checked by the relevant institutions.

Whatever it is, the approach of the Ministry of Sports and Youth in holding federation elections is ambiguous and the result is the serial cancellation of elections.

The Ministry of Sports, as the main custodian of the elections, should be responsible for this volume of cancellations.