National federations will give thoughts to delegates in Zurich meeting on September 15th
Twelve days before the UCI Congress on September 27th, incumbent president Pat McQuaid and his sole challenger Brian Cookson will present their electoral programmes at the exceptional ordinary general assembly of the European Cycling Union [UEC] at the Hotel Mövenpick Regensdorf in Zurich. The news was confirmed today by the UEC, which said that it would help determine how delegates will vote in the subsequent election.
McQuaid and Cookson will discuss their manifestos in front of representatives of the national federations of Europe, as well as to the European delegates.
“In order to preserve transparency, the National Federations will have the possibility to express their choice about both candidatures for the Presidency to the European Delegates at the UCI Elective Congress,” said the UEC in a statement.
In a further bid to ensure transparency, journalists will be able to attend the assembly.
In addition to hearing McQuaid and Cookson speak, the UEC will discuss the controversial proposed amendment to Article 51.1 of the UCI Constitution.
This proposal was made by the Malaysian national federation plus the Asian Cycling Confederation. It seeks to allow candidates for presidential elections to be nominated by any two federations. While that is seen as a positive step, the controversial aspect is that it is also proposed that if passed, the amendment would be retrospectively applied to the current presidential election, and the closing date for the nomination of candidates would be extended from June 29th to August 30th.
More recently it emerged that the UCI had a direct hand in the retrospective aspect of the proposal, requesting the Malaysian federation introduce that point.
Earlier today Cycling Australia said that it would reject the proposal, which needs a two thirds majority to be passed. It also said that it had decided to endorse Cookson over McQuaid.
CA president Klaus Mueller told the Sydney Morning Herald that he believed the two other countries from the Oceania confederation, New Zealand and Fiji, would do likewise.