Either FIDE Executive Director Nigel Freeman has done something deliberately brave, or something accidentally stupid, by publishing the news that FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has resigned. It seems that the basis for this claim was that Kirsan had verbally threatened to resign during the latest FIDE Presidential Board meeting, and at the end of the meeting said 'I resign' three times before leaving.
Kirsan has denied that he did resign (only once I assume), and I suspect this leaves FIDE in a bit of a quandary. The Presidential Board seems to want to be rid of him (and some members were openly speaking of ditching him at the next election), but claiming he has now resigned is a bit of a stretch. Under the FIDE statutes they can try and have him removed, but according to one section requires the approval of the Ethics Commission.
If I was a lawyer, and I am not, I would want to see a written resignation before I tried to appoint a new President (which will be Makropoulos in an acting capacity according to A.03.10 of the FIDE Handbook). Of course they could just ignore him and hopes he goes away, as apparently Kirsan isn't really the President, as FIDE want to keep doing business with the United States.
Or based on recent experiences (both personal and observational), the FIDE PB could just pick a rule that suits them and enforce that one, to the exclusion of all else. It is a policy that worked in the lead up to the 2014 election, so it should work now.
2 comments:
I also see no reason why they are straining so hard. Clearly, whatever the verbal situation, Ilyumzhinov had no intent to resign. (I'd also think Freeman realizes this...)
I completely agree on the issue of what "President" really means in FIDE is nebulous, given the power structure and also Makro's Deputy role, but now it seems to be coming to the fore.
It does not matter whether the resignation was written or not.
Assuming FIDE has any reasonable parliamentary procedure (OK, you can stop laughing...)
What matters is that there is manifestation of resignation to the electing body (here the GA),
which must then accept it, since resigning in an organization is asking to be relieved of a duty.
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