NOC Thailand secretary-general submits letter over election dispute

General Vitch Devahasdin Na Ayutthaya, secretary-general of the National Olympic Committee of Thailand (NOC Thailand), submitted a letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday regarding a controversial incident in the committee’s election process.

The letter was submitted to Jerome Poivey, Associate Director, Institutional Relations and Governance, NOC Relations Department, and James Macleod, Director Olympic Solidarity and NOC Relations. 

According to the letter, Vitch reported that NOC Thailand and 37 sports federations discussed eight agendas at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Bangkok as Olympic Council members.

He explained that the last agenda was the election of the new executive committee. At which point, an Election Chairman was proposed and agreed to be Prof Dr Charoen Vatanasin, with one legal counselor, and three scrutineers, he explained.

The situations went badly when Prof Dr Vatanasin produced a letter, dated March 20 (five days earlier) from the Olympian Association indicating the changes of two athletes, replacing the current ones, which was considered to have certain impact on the election, he pointed out.

“As the documents for this AGM was mailed out on March 12, one candidate team asked that Prof Dr Vatanasin would not allow the changes to be effective prior to the election, which was promptly ignored.”

“Therefore, this candidate team walked out as this was not according to the Constitutions.”

Vitch said the process went on until we now have the new Executive Committee for NOC Thailand. 

“However, the controversy above already resulted in a walkout of a large portion of the associations. Thus, I consider the situation to be part of the biased election,” he emphasised.

He requested Poivey and Macleod to review on this matter urgently whether the election process should be nulled and voided, and the election to be staged for its proper and completeness once again.

Pimol Srivikorn, president of the Taekwondo Association of Thailand, was elected president of NOC Thailand, despite his opponent, Suchai Pornchaisakudom, president of the Lawn Tennis Association of Thailand, and his team walking out over concerns about transparency.

Despite the protest, the election proceeded, resulting in Pimol’s victory with 38 votes—30 from sports associations, six from experts, one from the IOC and one from an Olympic athlete.