No postponing HOC election
Elections for the board of the Hellenic Olympic Committee will take place as scheduled today, Nikos Filaretos, a member of the board and one of Greece’s two members on the International Olympic Committee, said on Saturday. The elections have been thrown into turmoil over the admission of four new sports federations (ice hockey, bobsleigh and skeleton, luge and curling) created after the ice sports federation was broken up. The breakup was denounced by some in the outgoing board, including HOC president Lambis Nikolaou, as a ploy by the ruling New Democracy party to fill the new board with friendly members. ND and the opposition Socialists had already informally agreed on business tycoon Minos Kyriakou to succeed Nikolaou. Filaretos said the four federations participated legally and that the election could not be postponed. IOC president Jacques Rogge, briefed by Nikolaou, had asked on Friday that HOC consider a postponement.
