Sports reform groups yesterday accused the Chinese Taipei Volleyball Association (CTVBA) of attempting to rig an upcoming internal election by creating more than 3,500 “dummy accounts” for new members.
One More Game (贏回排球) and Fair Game Taiwan (體育改革聯會) members said at a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei that they are fed up with fraud, underhanded tactics and abuse of power by CTVBA executives.
Fair Game Taiwan spokesperson Chang Yu-chuan (張祐銓) said the Sports Administration is responsible for the alleged CTVBA scandal because Sports Administration officials were aware of the problems and had received complaints, but have done nothing.
Chang said that the group is to regretfully withdraw all its candidates from the CTVBA executive and board election, leaving only volleyballer Huang Pei-hung (黃培閎) to run for one of the board member seats.
Chang said they had evidence that in recent weeks 3,504 people were registered as new members, which the CTVBA said were handled with the help of 29 workers.
However, Chang said surveillance cameras show that none of these new members paid the required membership fees.
The groups alleged that the new members were “dummy accounts” so that incumbent CTVBA officials can rig the internal election to their advantage and remain in power and retain control of the finances.
Sports Administration deputy director Lin Che-hung (林哲宏) said that his agency has been following disputes at the CTVBA and would not cover up problems.
“We will monitor the CTVBA election process in accordance to the law with fairness for everyone,” he said.
However, Lin did not provide any concrete measures.
According to Chang, most people were hopeful of changes and improvements to openness and fairness at sports bodies after the legislature approved amendments to the National Sports Act (國民體育法) in September last year.
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