I will say this about the FEI–they certainly have an interesting way of doing things. I suppose if your organization has a track record of questinable political maneuvering then it makes sense to hold a General Assembly in Taipei, where all of the action goes down when Europe is just waking up and North America is fast asleep.
On Thursday, the three presidential candidates made their presentations to the National Federations in preparations for the presidential vote on Friday. Eurodressage is reporting that all sessions at the General Assembly have been behind closed doors. The same article quotes Akaash Maharaj, president of the Canadian Equestrian Federation, as saying that the General Assembly has “turned into a gladiator arena of blood and sand.” There appears to be a major divide in the FEI between those who believe change is necessary to move forward and those who believe that change is not worth the price of dissent and opposition.
The Horse and Hound has published an article from the General Assembly which addresses the most recent political maneuvering of the candidates. One major point that the article makes is that Princess Haya sits on the IOC, which means that she can ensure that horse sports remain a part of the Olympics. Keeping eventing in the Olympics is a big deal for me, but many eventers couldn’t care less.
According to the FEI, the General Assembly on Friday is being broadcast free on FEI TV although it is unclear how much access the cameras will have to the voting process. FEI TV is also offering replays from Thursday and registration is required for both the live video and replays.
Candidate PDF presentations released by the FEI: Princess Haya, Henk Rottinghuis, Sven Holmberg
A very CliffNotes version of the candidates is that Princess Haya is the incumbent, Sven Holmberg is her current VP and represents a more centrist opposition, and Henk Rottinghuis is the reformist who has been endorsed by David O’Connor.
The presidential election will be held on Friday around 4am GMT, which means around midnight Thursday on the east coast–timezones can be incredibly confusing. There will be two rounds of secret ballot voting using a electronic voting system. Each national federation has one vote. If no candidate gets over two-thirds of the votes, then the candidate with the least votes will get dropped from the race and the remaining two candidates will face off in a three round rock-paper-scissors duel to pick a winner.
Go eventing.
