October 22, 2006	Sunday	Ramazan 28, 1427

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KARACHI, Oct 21: Pakistan’s Anwar Chowdhry might face an uphill task in getting re-elected as chief of International Boxing Federation (AIBA) at the elections on Nov 3 and 4 in Santo Domingo.

Chowdhry, who is also chairman of Pakistan Boxing Federation (PBF), will be battling against Ching-Kuo Wu of Chinese Taipei – the only candidate contesting for the presidentship of AIBA.

Although another candidate Gafur Rakhimov has withdrawn his candidature for AIBA president, Chowdhry is likely to have a close contest against much younger Wu who remained a member of executive committee of AIBA from 1982 to 1998.

The 60-year-old Wu, who was chairman of the Youth, Finance and Business Commission of AIBA from 1986 to 1998, was also the candidate of president’s office in 1998 but lost against Chowdhry.

On the other hand, long-serving 84-year-old Chowdhry has been at the helm of international boxing affairs since 1966 when he became AIBA’s vice-president before being elected as secretary-general in 1974. The Pakistani became the AIBA chief for the first time in 1986 and since then has been at the throne of international boxing.

Nevertheless, sources say that re-election might be a difficult task this time around for Chowdhry, especially since Wu, who is a member of International Olympic Committee (IOC) is being backed by the international ruling body of sports.

Another factor that might go against Chowdhry is his old age which many in international boxing circle believe hinders in his performance. However, there is also a general discontent among AIBA members against Chowdhry which might play a vital role in his possible ouster.

As for the post of secretary-general Caner Doganeli of Turkey will be running for re-election against two candidates — Dr Agajan Abiyev of Azerbaijan and Dr Abdellah Bessalem of Algeria.

Doganeli is a former Olympic boxer who participated in 1972 Munich Olympic and is also president of Turkish Boxing Federation. He was elected as secretary-general in 2002.

Interestingly, Chowdhry has been president of AIBA for the last 20 years and all the three secretaries elected during this time were close associates of the Pakistani official.

While Doganeli is believed to be a close aide of Chowdhry, interestingly Abiyev is also close to the AIBA chief as he has been regularly organizing Anwar Chowdhry tournament in Azerbaijan since 1996.

Apart from election of president, secretary-general, nine vice-presidents and 20 members of the executive committee, chairmen of various commissions of AIBA will also be nominated after the elections.

The present executive committee of AIBA will meet on Nov 1 followed by meetings of AIBA commissions the next day. The AIBA Congress will elect office-bearers on Nov 3 and 4 and the new executive committee will meet the next day.