Under the above dramatic headline the One World One Vision campaign site of
Kirsan Ilyumzhinhov reports
the following (caps and boldface as in the original, but omitting the H2 fonts
for some of the paragraphs):
The lawsuit filed by the Presidential Campaign of Anatoly
Karpov and several National Federations (United
States, France, Germany, Switzerland and Ukraine) in the Court
of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland
– HAS BEEN DISMISSED, thereby confirming Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s
nomination for President in the forthcoming election.
“The court in Lausanne confirmed legitimacy of my nomination to the
post of the President of FIDE by the Russian Chess Federation,”
said Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
“I am very happy that the court confirmed that my nominations are
valid and I am very thankful for the Federations and people who have been
there for me every step of the way. Now, it’s time to move on and focus on
the positive aspects of promoting and developing chess, which I have dedicated
my whole life to,” said Beatriz Marinello.
The legitimacy of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s nominations for President
and Beatriz Marinello’s nominations for Vice President
on Ilyumzhinov’s slate ARE VALID.
Our team has worked hard these last few months and the judgement
is a vindication of all that we have been saying.
The lawsuit, which was filed by White & Case, a Manhattan
firm, sought to have the ticket of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov disqualified.
BUT…JUSTICE PREVAILED.
It has been a testing time for the “One World. One Vision.” Team.
We have had to face countless attacks by the Karpov Team.
We have had to defend ourselves in court, we have had to
defend ourselves against malicious rumors and verbal
attacks, we have had to face enormous pressure –
but….AGAIN…WE PREVAILED.
We have succeeded in the face of adversity and with 94 National
Federations supporting us so far, WE WILL WIN!
Stay tuned for more details.
Gens una sumus
“One World. One Vision.” Campaign
On the FIDE
web site we reads: "Despite this positive outcome, FIDE deeply regrets
the FIDE resources spent on its efforts to have this frivolous claim dismissed."
FIDE Failed to Verify Nominations, but No Disqualifications from Swiss Court
The Anatoly Karpov 2010 campaign site reports
the development as follows:
The court case brought by five national federations against Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s
FIDE to contest the legitimacy of his ticket’s nominations has failed
to bring the desired result of forcing Kirsan to follow the rules. While we
are disappointed that Kirsan’s administration will not be directly punished
for abusing FIDE powers and ignoring regulations, we look forward to winning
the vote in Khanty-Mansiysk!
Incredibly, on his campaign website today Kirsan is still falsely claiming
he was nominated by the Russian Chess Federation! The Court specifically avoided
deciding on this issue, declaring it irrelevant because of their broadened
interpretation of the nomination regulations. (Essentially, because of the
vague wording, valid membership in ANY federation means a nomination can come
from ANY federation, which was obviously not the intent of the rule.)
Although it found that FIDE failed to properly verify the validity of the
nominations, the Lausanne Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled against the
federations because the wording of the FIDE regulations is insufficiently
specific on the matter of nomination requirements. One of the main points
of the lawsuit was that Kirsan and one of his nominees, Beatriz Marinello,
had been nominated by federations of which they were not members for the required
one year period. But because the wording of the regulations is vague and because
there has been so little proper enforcement of the regulations in the past,
the CAS panel decided this requirement was insufficient to disqualify Kirsan’s
ticket.
The panel, however, did seem to say that if there are any conflicts of interest,
the relevant person or persons should recuse himself. This would mean that
having the incumbent FIDE administration members running the election processes
in Khanty-Mansiysk should not be allowed, and they should excuse themselves,
or perhaps that impartial panels or mutually satisfactory third parties should
be appointed to oversee the proceedings. Otherwise, the elections might be
challenged since there is an obvious conflict of interest.
We will update this story as our legal team advises.
In the judgement passed down by the Court of Arbitration for Sport the majority
of the Panel considered that it has jurisdiction to decide on the National Federations
claims. On the contrary, it ruled that it has no jurisdiction with respect to
the claims made by Karpov 2010 Inc. which was claiming damages which it allegedly
incurred as “campaign costs expended by the Karpov presidential ticket”.
Claimants were asking the Panel to find “that Mr. Karpov was validly
nominated by the [Russian Chess Federation] as its sole nominee to run for the
Presidency of FIDE”. The Panel considered that FIDE had no standing to
be sued with respect to this prayer of relief and that Claimants should have
commence proceedings against the competent Russian bodies.
Concerning the conditions to be nominated, the Panel reminded that it has always
been FIDE’s practice that the membership requirements for candidates on
a Presidential ticket were not applied strictly so long as the candidates are
part of the “chess family” and that this practice is in line with
the text of FIDE Electoral Regulations. In addition, the Panel considered that
it is sufficient for a candidate on a Presidential ticket to be a member of
any of the FIDE members and that the requirement of a one-year membership is
not mandatory but recommendatory. In light of this principle, the Arbitrators
considered that it was not necessary for them to decide on the validity of the
nomination of the RCF or of other federations.
The Panel therefore considered that it is sufficient for Mr Ilyumzhinov to
be a member of the RCF and part of the chess family which he obviously is in
view of the long-lasting FIDE Presidency. For similar reasons, the Panel stated
that it is clear that Ms Marinello, who also belongs to the USCF, has been validly
nominated by the federations of Chile and Brazil.
For the sake of completeness, the Panel added that the withdrawal by the Argentinian
of its endorsement of the Ilyumzhinov ticket does not affect the nomination
filed by it prior to the applicable deadline.
In conclusion, the Panel rejected Claimants’ claims requesting that both
Mr Ilyumzhinov’s and Ms Marinello’s nominations be deemed invalid
and, accordingly, rejected Claimants’ claims that Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s
ticket be disqualified from the election.
Claimants were also alleging that “FIDE has breached its obligations
to act with impartiality towards the candidates and to conduct the election
in a fair manner”. On that issue, the Panel considered that the testimony
heard did not produce proof of an impartial and unfair conduct on the part of
FIDE. On the contrary, the FIDE Secretariat alerted the Karpov’s ticket
a few hours before the lapse of the term for nominations that a certain signature
was missing. The Secretariat would certainly not have acted in this manner,
the Panel said, had they intended to unfairly help the ticket of Mr. Ilyumzhinov.
- The full text of the decision is available in PDF here.
All
ChessBase report on the FIDE Elections 2010
