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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."
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.
