(MENAFN - Muscat Daily) The inaugural elections to the Oman Olympic Committee (OOC) will be held at its annual general meeting on April 25, Hilal al Sinani, the OOC's secretarygeneral, said on Tuesday. Speaking to Muscat Daily after the OOC's board of directors held an extraordinary general meeting under the chairmanship of Sayyid Khalid al Busaidy, the Oman Football Association chairman, at the OOC headquarters on Tuesday, Sinani said, ''The board has agreed to set a date for the historic and maiden OOC elections. It will be held on April 25.''
The meeting was chaired by Busaidy in the absence of Habib Abdulnabi Macki, the acting OOC chairman. Sinani said, ''The election process will start on March 9. Candidates will be allowed to file nominations to contest for the posts of chairman, vice-chairman, secretary-general, treasurer and three other board members. Nominations will close on March 16.'' Sinani said the final list of candidates will be announced on April 17.
At Tuesday's three-hour-long meeting, it was also decided that the next gathering of the OOC's board will take place on March 19, the same day on which the board will scrutinise the applications of the candidates. Apart from the seven elected members, the OOC board will also constitute an IOC member - in this case, Habib Macki - one eminent sports personality and a woman representative.
The board members discussed ways to nominate members to the electoral pool that will comprise representatives of the ten sports associations under the OOC. A pool of 16 voters will elect the new board. The electorate comprises one representative each from ten sports associations, two representatives (including a woman) from the athletes' committee, two eminent sports personalities, an IOC member and a separate representative from the women's sports committee. The board on Tuesday requested the respective associations to nominate three current or former prominent athletes to the OOC's athletes' committee.
The panel will then hold its own general assembly to set up a board that will decide on nominating two members, who will be part of the electoral pool. The associations, meanwhile, have also been asked to nominate three sports personalities, and the existing OOC board will pick the final two names to complete the electoral pool. At the meeting, it was also decided to retain the current OOC board till the elections take place. However, in a related development, former Oman Volleyball Association chief, Sheikh Khalid al Wahaibi, resigned from the board on Tuesday. A replacement will be decided later<
