NOC election today at Olympic House
The National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL) elections to select the new set of office-bearers for the period of 2021 to 2024 will be held today (28) at the Olympic House in Colombo, commencing at 5 p.m.
A total of 35 national sports associations affiliated with the NOCSL are eligible to cast their secret votes at the elections.
The incumbent president of NOC Suresh Subramaniam and president of Sri Lanka Athletics Maj. Gen. Palitha Fernando will contest for the top post while Vice-President (4), Secretary General (1), Assistant Secretary (1), Treasurer (1), Assistant Treasurer (1) and three members to the executive committee all together 12 posts to be contested today.
Both President candidates Suresh Subramaniam and Major General Palitha Fernando are very confident to win this major election. However keen tussel to be expected in this election.
During the last NOC election held in 2018 Suresh Subramaniam and Rohan Fernando contested for the top post where Subramaniam received 18 votes and Rohan Fernando received 12 votes. However Rohan Fernando this time will not contest for any post.The incumbent Secretary Maxwell de Silva who received 19 votes to defeat Preethi Perera last time once again will contest for Secretary post and his opponent Mohan Wijesinghe who is the present Sri Lanka Badminton Secretary will contest from Palitha Fernando’s party .
However Major General Palitha Fernando obtained 18 votes at the 2018 NOCSL elections and secured the Vice-President post and he was the only losing party member to win at the last election. Fernando said that his main goal is to establish a solid platform to develop the sports in the country and to eliminate some of the irregularities in the current administrative system and he is very confident to win this election with majority support. The incumbent President Subramaniam also believes that he has the chance of winning the elections this time, even by a bigger margin, as he had a clean record during this period by conducting matters in a transparent manner.
Meanwhile, out of the 12 top candidates, who had submitted nominations, Chandana Liyanage (basketball) and Shirantha Peiris (shooting) have already won the posts of Assistant Secretary and Assistant Treasurer uncontested. The significance is that both candidates are from Subramaniam’s camp.
In addition, the nominations of Dian Gomes (boxing) and Kamal Pushpakumara (hockey) for the post of vice-president have been rejected, while another vice-president candidate, Asanga Seneviratne (baseball), has withdrawn.
Meanwhile for the four Vice President posts Joseph Kenny, Suranjith Premadasa and Nilu Jayathileke have come forward from Subramaniam’s party while Kanchana Jayaratne and Preethi Perera on behalf of the Palitha Fernando’s party will be contested.
Gamini Jayasinghe on behalf of Suresh Subramaniam and Ajith Siyambalapitiya on behalf of Palitha Fernando will contest for the post of Treasurer.