Former Candidates Apply Again for VAM Elections; Latheef For President

This time too, Mohamed Latheef is running for president after the previous VAM elections were canceled and re-opened for fresh elections.

The election, scheduled to have been held on March 19, was canceled after Sports Commissioner Mohamed Tholal asked him not to go ahead with the elections unless the issues flagged by him were resolved.

Tholal had urged VAM’s current Exco to meet with the Olympic Committee and Sports Council and come to a resolution on the issues raised before going forth with the elections. The meeting was convened by the VAM with these agencies and after the concerns were resolved, the Sports Commission allowed the elections to go ahead.

The VAM opened for re-election soon after. Only one candidate has applied for each post in the elections which ended at 2 pm today. This time too, the candidates have applied for the same posts once again.

The committee, which is governed by the current regulations of VAM, has 15 members. All the six members, who were earlier in Exco, will continue till the end of the session. Under the new rules, the other nine Exco members are elected for the remaining one year of the current term.

Apart from the president's post, this time, the posts that were opened for Exco were added to Exco under the new rules. The announcement was made after Mohamed Ranesh, who was previously President, stepped down from his post.

Latheef had filed his nomination for the post of President while former national team coach Mohamed Sajid (Katte) had filed his nomination for the senior Vice-President's post. Ali Latheef is running for the post of Vice President of the volleyball section. Izzath Waheed has filed nominations for the post of Administrative Vice-President and Aida Abdul Hakim for the post of female Vice President. Aishath Fathinath had applied for the women's post of Exco. Fathullah Waheed (Fallo) has filed nominations for the position of third member, Sofwan Ahmed for the fourth post of general member of Exco and Shiyam Ali as the fifth member.

Section 22(b) of the new rules states that if only one candidate has filed his/her nomination, then that candidate will automatically be selected for the post. However, the candidate will formally take charge only after Tuesday's Congress.