New rules for the candidates running for the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) presidency have been outlined by the IOC’s ethics committee. The candidates may visit members to seek votes, provided they neither offer nor accept any gift, including a meal.
Keba Mbaye, chairman of the commission said, “a candidate can enter into contact with a member of the IOC, but this contact must not contain any advantage. Inviting a candidate to a restaurant is giving him an advantage.
If any candidate breaks the rules, the commission could issue a public warning.
Other rules include banning members from making public the way they intend to vote, banning candidates from colluding with one another, ordering candidates to “limit the number of trips that they are called upon to make…in order to avoid excessive expenditure”, ordering members to “avoid” visiting candidates, and banning candidates from receiving help from IOC staff.
Sir Ninian Stephen, the former governor general of Australia said, “it is extremely difficult to lay down cast-iron rules governing occasions such as this. I’ve got no doubt that a flexible attitude will be adopted”.
The commission said it had not considered whether candidates were allowed to contact members by telephone or e-mail. Mbaye said this would be left “to the conscience and to the sense of responsibility of the canadidates”. But candidates are not banned from giving media interviews.
