The swimming association of Puerto Rico, el Federacion Puertorriquena de Natacion (PRN), has announced an ‘extraordinary assembly’ for tonight, Monday, March 24th at 7:00. That proceeding will be overseen by Dale Neuberger, a FINA Vice-President.
Neuberger has been heavily involved as a mediator between Puerto Rico’s swimming association and its Olympic committee, the later of whom has issued sanctions, including something heading toward total disassociation of the federation, over contested results. Presently, the swimming federation is not listed on the Puerto Rican Olympic Committee’s website (COPUR) as one of its member federations.
At the September, 2012 elections, Jose Morales contested the election of Jose de Jesus as the president, and appealed the outcome to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). The CAS ruled that new elections must be held on the basis of presented election irregularities that included at least three willful instances of valid voting delegates being denied the opportunity to vote.
De Jesus was further sanctioned for repeatedly ignoring orders to hold new elections from the CAS, though he is still listed as the President on the official federation website. The announcement of the new “Special Election” was announced by Secretary Felix A. Calderon on March 14th.
The election will include a revote for all members of the executive committee, and will be overseen by a three-person committee that include Neuberger. Local media has reported that Juan Jose Aguayo, the president of the Caguas Swim Club, is among the known candidates for the position.