Corry Ihuhua
24 November 2008
THE presidential election for Athletics Namibia (AN) resulted in a deadlock as both Alpha Kangueehi and track legend Frank Fredericks each garnered four votes, resulting in no new president being chosen for the body at the weekend.
This means that they will seek a legal opinion on the matter, despite the body's constitution making provision for the incumbent president to have a casting vote.
Kangueehi got votes from Katima, Kavango, Otjozondjupa and Oshikoto, while Fredericks got the nod from Hardap, Omusati, Khomas and Erongo.
Kangueehi told The Namibian Sport that they will now seek legal opinion on the deadlock, as the Fredericks camp viewed it as unfair for Kangueehi to have a casting vote in case of a deadlock at the end of an election.
"The constitution makes provision that the current president has a casting vote," said Kangueehi, but Fredericks argued that there should not be a casting vote as there was no council.
REGIONS OR COUNCIL? Fredericks said the council, which is the highest organ of the body, was dissolved prior to the election and each candidate had to fight it out on their own, thus scrapping the powers of the council to give the incumbent president the right to have a casting vote.
This, according to Fredericks, has resulted in asking Kangueehi to seek a legal opinion on the matter as he (Fredericks) deemed it unfair for Kangueehi to vote for himself.
Fredericks says he feels that the regions should be given the power to decide who they want as president.
"The council cannot make a decision because there was none before the elections.
What happens is that the council is dissolved and that all positions are declared vacant," he said.
Kangueehi meanwhile announced that February 2009 will see the election of the vice presidents and additional members of AN, but according to Fredericks, these people cannot be put in place if there is no president for the body.
Kangueehi is pushing for another term and his ambition of taking the sport to the regions still remains his biggest objective, while Fredericks aims to bring harmony in the sport that has been characterised by infighting for years on end.
Kangueehi claims that he has managed to decentralise the sport since 2004 and at the same time, wants to prevent it from being centralised only to a few.
He believes in a system in which all 13 regions get a share of the cake and argues that Namibia's raw talents are in the rural areas and not only in the cities.
Fredericks earlier indicated that he does not want to become president because of his international prestige, but wants the sport to prosper domestically and want athletes to become more competitive on the international level.
He said the people also asked him to vie for presidency for the code which has not seen any development programmes put in place, while the number of athletes participating in major international competitions has dwindled over the years.
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