Italy’s Gianni Merlo will continue in his role as president of the International Sports Press Association (AIPS) for another four years after achieving a landslide victory over his Hungarian counterpart Zsuzsa Csisztu on 12 April, during the 88th AIPS Congress at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.
Merlo secured a commanding 83 votes (76.85%) out of the 108 valid votes cast to renew his mandate for a sixth and final term. Csisztu from Hungary got 25 votes (23.15%). The only other time Merlo had an opponent in the presidential election was in 2005, when he was first elected.
“I think the people have decided to continue, because the programme that I proposed is one that is looking to the future and will also help prepare the younger generations,” Merlo said.
Meanwhile Kenya’s Evelyn Watta beat Ioannis Daras from Greece to the 1st Vice President position with an even bigger margin. The Kenyan took a whopping 99 votes (90%) out of the 110 valid votes, leaving Daras with just 11 (10%). The incumbent Esat Yilmaer from Turkey dropped out of the race prior to the election.
Manuel Queiroz from Portugal was elected as the new treasurer by acclamation following the withdrawal of his opponents.
In the election for the four Vice President positions, China’s Gao Chao led the way with 83.64% of the votes. He was followed by Ernesto Ortiz Gomez from Uruguay, Michal Dusik from Czechia and Estonia’s Maarja Värv.
And out of the 24 that were vying to be Executive Committee Members, the following 12 were elected: Hiroki Shoda (Japan); Adel Alzahrani (Saudi Arabia); Morad Moutaouakkil (Morocco); Rudy Nuyens (Belgium); Predrag Milinkovic (Serbia); Jura Ozmec (Croatia); Jože Zidar (Slovenia); Ahmed Al-Kaabi (Oman); Sabanayakan Selvakumaraswamy (India); Catalin Tepelin (Romania); Fernando Nürnberg Zambrana (Bolivia); Josef Langer (Austria).
The voting members agreed that after the AIPS Secretary General has been appointed, Mohamed Ould El Hassan (Mauritania), who finished 13th in Sunday’s race, will be automatically appointed to the Executive Committee.
Term limit
Earlier in the day, the Congress had voted in favour of a presidential term limit of a maximum of 12 years but this amendment is to take effect from the next period. In another major decision taken on Sunday, members of the Executive Committee “must be no older than 75 years on January 1 of the year in which the election takes place.”
