UCI president Pat McQuaid has responded to the announcement by Cycling Ireland’s board members that they would hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to consider CI’s recent nomination of him, saying that the decision doesn’t indicate any reflection upon the merits of his nomination.
An EGM gives the member clubs of Cycling Ireland a chance to vote as to whether McQuaid will be nominated to run for UCI President. If they vote "No", he'll have to apply to the Swiss federation and try to gain support for his campaign there. The current UCI rules allow him to seek nomination in Switzerland since he is living in that country.
CI’s decision yesterday followed suggestions that it hadn’t followed procedures correctly in its first vote two weeks ago.
“I was honoured that the board of Cycling Ireland endorsed my nomination as a candidate for the Presidency of the UCI earlier this month,” McQuaid said in a statement issued late last night.
“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 temporarily vacated the chair of the nomination meeting so that he could contribute to the meeting under the chair of the CEO.
“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.”
Former CI board member Anto Moran, who voted against McQuaid at that meeting and subsequently resigned from the board, spoke at length to VeloNation on the issue late yesterday. He suggested that Article 42 in Cycling Ireland’s Memorandum and Articles had been contravened, and had requested that CI turn the matter over to an EGM.
Separate to that, Moran and others gathered support for an EGM amongst the member clubs. It was estimated that thirty to forty clubs would be needed to reach the numbers required to secure an EGM. By yesterday evening, after a short period of work by Moran, Cillian Kelly of Irishpeloton.com and others, 31 clubs had indicated that they wanted such a meeting.
That number was likely to grow as more clubs responded.
CI’s decision effectively puts McQuaid’s nomination on hold until the federation’s own clubs vote on the matter.
While his statement points out that the board has already nominated him to run again as president, that decision will be rescinded if a majority of clubs at the EGM vote against that backing.
McQuaid would then be forced to seek nomination from the Swiss cycling federation.