Serik Konakbayev cleared to oppose Gafur

In a landmark decision, the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has ruled Asian Boxing Confederation (ASBC) president Serik Konakbayev of Kazakhstan eligible to oppose Gafur Rahimov of Uzbekistan for the AIBA presidency. The election will be held during the AIBA World Congress in Moscow tomorrow with the Philippines casting a vote through POC/ABAP president Ricky Vargas. POC communications director/ABAP secretary-general Ed Picson is with Vargas in Russia.

Konakbayev’s candidacy was rejected by AIBA because he failed to muster the required minimum of 20 nominations from member countries by the deadline of Sept. 23. But Konakbayev argued that Sept. 23 was a Sunday and under Swiss law, a deadline is extended to the next working day if it falls on a Sunday or a non-working day.  With no sympathy from AIBA, Konakbayev took his case before CAS and submitted an appeal.

At first, it didn’t seem like Konakbayev had even a slim chance of obtaining a favorable decision particularly as CAS had previously dismissed his motion to postpone the AIBA polls. Konakbayev presumably sought the delay to buy more time to secure the minimum nominations. But last Tuesday, CAS announced it had upheld Konakbayev’s appeal.

“AIBA is ordered to include Serik Konakbayev in the list of presidential candidates standing for election at the next AIBA Congress,” said CAS. “The AIBA Election Committee unduly refused the nominations returned on a wrong form by several federations in support of their candidate while such nominations should have been considered as being validly expressed. Therefore, the CAS Panel acknowledged that Serik Konakbayev reached the threshold of 20 nominations supporting his candidature for the AIBA presidency within the relevant time limit.”

So, now it’s a one-on-one battle for the presidency. Both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are in the ASBC so the Asian vote won’t be a solid bloc. AIBA’s 203 members come from 50 countries in Africa, 42 in the Americas, 44 in Asia, 51 in Europe and 16 in Oceania.

Commenting on the decision, Rahimov said, “We thank CAS for their hard work in rendering this decision ahead of this week’s AIBA Congress… the rules that our election committee had to abide by in this process were very complicated and rigid and CAS has confirmed that … I am pleased to welcome another candidate and, as I have said before on numerous occasions, for AIBA, it is good when we have competition especially at the highest levels and now we can let the AIBA membership decide whom they believe is the best leader to guide our sport out of financial difficulty and towards a sustainable future.”

Picson said Rahimov’s travel restrictions were recently lifted although along with other members of the AIBA Executive Committee, he was not issued credentials for the recent Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. “Uzbekistan has withdrawn instructions for Interpol to arrest him,” said Picson. “It was the previous Uzbek government that Gafur was at odds with. A few months back, Gafur finally went home to Tashkent after eight years. Then, he went to Lausanne and visited the AIBA headquarters.”

Rahimov, who was designated interim AIBA president early this year, was taken out of Uzbekistan’s most-wanted list last July. He fled Uzbekistan in 2010 after falling out of favor with the government and lived in exile in Dubai and Moscow. But Rahimov remains under investigation for forgery, money laundering, extortion and organized crime activities. He is still unable to visit the US but two law firms, Ferrari and Associates of Washington, D. C. and Carter-Ruck of London, are working feverishly to clear his name. 

The IOC is watching the AIBA elections closely and has threatened to delist boxing from the Olympic calendar in the 2020 Tokyo Games if Rahimov is voted as president in a permanent capacity. The IOC allowed only AIBA executive director Tom Virgets of the US to represent the organization’s leadership at the recent Youth Olympics. The voting will be conducted by secret ballot.