Nepal Olympic Committee election hots up

Kathmandu, Aug 28: All the voters barring one have filed their candidacy for the Nepal Olympic Committee (NOC) election set for September 6 in Satdobato, Lalitpur.

Except for the former president Dhruba Bahadur Pradhan, all 27 eligible voters are set to contest for one of the other post. Ratan Kumar Tandon is set to retain the treasurer’s post as he is the only one to file candidacy in the position.

National Sports Council vice-president Pitambar Timsina is also sure to be elected as the deputy general secretary having no other candidate for the position. The date for withdrawing candidacy has been set until Thursday.

The current president Jeevan Ram Shrestha is running for re-election having defeated Umesh Lal Shrestha 17-9 for a four-year tenure the last time. Jeeven Ram be up against the same opponent this time too. Umesh Lal is the former NOC vice-president.

Barring any late withdrawal, eight individuals are in fray for the five available berths for vice-presidents. Among the candidates include current vice president Jyoti Rana, deputy general secretary Rajiv Shrestha, members Tej Bahadur Gurung, Ashok Ratna Bajracharya, Sunil Kumar Shrestha and Samim Miya Ansari. Pushpa Das Shrestha and Chaturananda Raj Vaidhya are the other candidates for the post.

Former vice-president Purendra Bikram Lakhe will be up against Nilendra Raj Shrestha for the general secretary position. The NOC has three positions for secretary and four person have filed their candidacy for the post including Keshab Kumar Bista, Ramji Bahadur Shrestha, Dipak Harsha Bajracharya and Tulsi Thapa. Eight candidates have filed nominations for seven posts available for members.

Ramesh Prasad Shiwakoti, Ram Awale, Prakash Sumsher Rana, Gopal Sundar Lal Kakshapati, Tashi Ghale, Hom Bahadur Dong, Dirgha Bahadur KC and Manoranjan Raman Sharma are the candidates for members.

National Olympic Committee is a body that generally coordinates for a country’s participation at the Olympic Games and continental meets like Asian Games and South Asian Games.

Controlled by the International Olympic Committee, National Olympic Committee—in case of Nepal it is NOC—is not only responsible to ensure country’s participation at Olympics but also plays pivotal role in bidding for Games to host any such multi-event sports meets.

The National Olympic Committee claims itself to be an independent and sovereign entity. It functions independently under the guidance of IOC charter rather than the law and order of the country it represents.

National Sports Council is the top sports governing body of Nepal but even it is helpless when it comes to hosting any multi-sports events or representing country in such meets.

Rather it is NOC who takes the lead role is such cases making the body even more powerful. Nepal’s participation at the Olympic Games has largely been through wild card entries and it is the Olympic Committee who coordinates with IOC to get such wild cards.

According to one of the vice presidential candidates, the power NOC chief enjoys make the post too lucrative.

“The hospitality and respect that NOC chief enjoys during Olympics and Asian Games makes the position very attractive. NOC also gets an annual fund of at least $ 140,000 to run the administration besides getting other financial support to run solidarity projects,” he said.