The Pacific Games Council has accused the Tahitian government of political interference, after announcing it will boycott the upcoming Mini Games in Vanuatu.
The withdrawal follows a disagreement over who should represent Tahiti's boxers in Port Vila in December.
The President of the Games Council, Vidhya Lakhan, told Vinnie Wylie complications arose following a court order in August which annulled the elections of the officers of the Pacific Games Association of Tahiti.
Vidhya Lakhan
Photo: Pacific Games Council
Transcript
VIDHYA LAKHAN: All the entries that need to be submitted has to be under the signature of the President or the Secretary General of the Pacific Games Association of our respective member countries. If there is no PGA in Tahiti then who submits the entries? Our Executive Board met and we quickly decided to protect the interests of athletes in Tahiti and to enable them to take part in the Mini Pacific Games if they so wish then we will accept entries directly from national federations, provided they are affliliated to their respective international federations, so they must be recognised as representing their sport in Tahiti. In Tahiti we know that there are two boxing associations - one of them is recognised by the government and the other one is recognised by the international boxing federation, AIBA.
VINNIE WYLIE: And I guess what makes this a little more complicated is up until October the President of the Olympic Committee in French Polynesia was Tauhiti Nena, who unsuccessfully tried to lobby the government to provide money to host the Pacific Games in two years. So he's no longer, because of that court order, the President but he's obviously in charge of the boxing federation that the government does not recognise. There's obviously some tensions or some issues between those two parties, and that's kind of spilled over into this dispute?
VL: You are correct and the Tahitian government's recognition or non recognition of one or the other of the two boxing federations could be bordering on political interference. We stay out of that but our rules are quite clear: knowing the fact that in Tahiti there are two boxing federations and one has come into existence in the last few months, which is recognised by the government but not by the international boxing federation, whereas the other one, that is not recognised by the government, is recognised by the international boxing federation. So, according to our rules, we will only recognise the boxing federation or association in Tahiti which is recognised by the international boxing association or federation - and they would have the right to take part in the Pacific Games.
To embed this content on your own webpage, cut and paste the following:
See terms of use.
