Electionss for the new board of trustees of the Philippine Swimming Inc. are scheduled on June 15 under stringent guidelines and precise timelines.
World Aquatics approved of the election proceedings formulated by an Electoral Committee which the international federation itself created to establish guidelines for the exercise.
The guidelines and policies for the elections are publicly available at https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ml604Z2GZwxGGXASjGY9xzv173KDPnoN/edit.
The Electoral Committee is composed of POC secretary-general Atty. Edwin Gastanes as chairman and POC legal chief Atty. Wharton Chan, Atty. Avelino Sumagui and Atty. Marcus Antonius Andaya as members. Their appointment to the committee was approved by the World Aquatics through its Executive Director Brent Nowicki.
“The guidelines and policies have been established in such a way that they adhere to IF policies and certified instructions and are comprehensively inclusive of all stakeholders—regional representation and the sport’s disciplines,” Chan said.
To be elected are 11 members of the board of trustees based on geographical sector with—plus one member from among the representatives of diving, open water swimming, water polo and artistic swimming.
The geographical sector covers two each from the Area 1 (National Capital Region), Area 2 (Regions 1, 2, 3 and Cordillera Autonomous Region), Area 3 (Regions 4-A, 4-B and 5), Area 4 (Regions 6, 7 and 8) and Area 5 (Regions 9, 10, 11, 12, CARAGA Region and Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao).
All clubs (new and old) are required to register through the Electoral Committee email philaquatics.elecom2023@gmail.com.
As instructed by the World Aquatics, the Electoral Committee is suspending the requirement of active membership because of the pandemic when compliance was difficult for all clubs.
Participation in the National Qualifying event for the Cambodia Southeast Asian Games at the New Clark City last February will be one of the bases for club membership.
The Electoral Committee said that the clubs which sent athletes to the NCC qualifiers “showed their strong support to the sport” and also solidly indicated that they are able to compete at the highest level in the Philippines.
Clubs which did not participate in the qualifiers will be subjected to validation by the Electoral Committee, while member Clubs of the PSI will be automatically considered.
Details—time and venue—of the June 15 elections will be announced later.