2005 CISS/Deaflympics Congress Elections: How And In What Manner Elections Were Held

From: DeafSportLawsuit.com - Jan 26, 2005

PRESS RELEASE – 26 January, 2005

2005 CISS/DEAFLYMPICS CONGRESS ELECTIONS: HOW AND IN WHAT MANNER ELECTIONS WERE HELD

By Rafael Pinkhasov Pinchas, CISS/Deaflympics Ombudsman

New York, USA – During and after the end of the 39th CISS/Deaflympics Congress held on January 3-4, 2005, at Melbourne, Australia, I received many relevant communication messages from various persons, including through my www.deafsportlawsuit.com website.

These relevant communication messages were related to the subject of the Congress and its election session.

As a leading voice for law and order in the structure of the CISS/Deaflympics and Number One defender for equal and just rights of every deaf athlete in the world, I was unable to witness firsthand the proceedings of such a Congress. The main reason of my inability to attend this event was that, at the direct orders of my lawsuit adversaries – Donalda Ammons and Jerald Jordan, I was forcibly banned by the local police, security agents and a detective from attending the Congress sessions held at the glitzy Crown Promenade hotel in Melbourne.

How in what manner was the Congress, especially its election session, conducted?

Let's read and judge it by getting familiarized with the eight randomly-selected communication messages produced by the delegates and non-delegates of the Congress which are published below:

Message Number One:

"We can not believe that Russia's Rukhledev lost his election for all three different positions in the CISS Executive Committee – President, Vice President and Member-at-Large. Let's assume – and accept – he lost the elections to Ammons for the position of the President now, then how did Rukhledev lose his elections for other two positions – Vice President and Member-at-Large – to those very minor and unknown figures in the world of the deaf sports politics from Israel, Switzerland and China? Who are these persons-candidates - and election winners - from Israel, Switzerland and China? In comparison with Rukhledev, what kind of contribution has each of them – an Israeli, a Swiss and a Chinese, individually - made to the development and progress of the international deaf sports movement before the elections? Rukhledev, by the way, was a world class athlete – for both the hearing and deaf people! He is also a long-time and able sports administrator of tremendous stature. His nation of Russia is a world power in our deaf sports movement. For example, at Melbourne his Russian-led delegation won the largest number of medals at the 2005 Deaflympic Summer Games – 56 – than any other nation, while two years ago in Sweden, Russia was the top-producing medal nation at the Deaflympic Winter Games. Because of Rukhledev's versatile and gigantic leadership, Russia, as an independent nation since 1991, has been doing very well in the international sports arena. Before the elections and unlike his election adversaries from the USA, Israel, Switzerland and China, Rukhledev got the full support and blessing from the IOC 's top man and Honorary President of the Russian Olympic Committee, Mr. Vitaly Smirnov, to run for an elective position at the CISS/Deaflympics. In addition, Rukhledev was the one who presented the illustrious English-language book about his storied life as an athlete and sports executive to all the CISS Congress delegates – the only election candidate to do so at Melbourne. Now, again, how did it happen that Rukhledev, coming from a super power sports nation of Russia, to lose all three election positions at Melbourne?"

Message Number Two:

"As one of the delegates during the CISS Congress, I was totally unhappy with the way the Congress was conducted, especially when it came to the election. One needs to ask oneself: How come Valery ( Rukhledev ) lost all the positions he contested within the CISS? He lost the presidency, he lost the vice presidency and he lost the board membership seat! Is not this strange? Something fishy happened there, especially where vote counting was concerned. The treatment meted out on Valery was extremely very unfair. He was asked to motivate why he should be voted as president, but he was not asked to motivate why he should be voted as vice president, nor was he asked to motivate why he should be voted as board member. Were he allowed to motivate, I am confident that he would have won either vice presidency or the board membership seat. There were a lot of things I witnessed as well that I feel were wrong. In my view, there is no such thing as Deaflympics, the so called Deaflympics is in fact a USADSF ( United States Deaf Sports Federation ) disguised as an international Deaf sports federation. All the other board members of the so-called Deaflympics are being used as window dressing dummies. Period!"

Message Number Three:

"We were very puzzled by the active presence and involvement of Jerald Jordan of USA at the Congress. We know that he is a CISS Honorary Life Member. But, on and off the Congress, it was him who was running the show. We also witnessed that Jordan was heavily involved in lobbying politics - he was desperately seeking for delegate's votes for Ammons and against Rukhledev. Each time Jordan approached a delegate, he used his three different signs in Gestuno, "Vote ( for ) Woman Ammons!"

Message Number Four:

"We must state that we were not very pleased the way the CISS led by its Interim President/General Secretary, Ms. Donalda Ammons, organized the Congress, including the fact that there were many security men in attendance, which made us, the delegates, to feel uncomfortable and insecure. We also felt uncomfortable and insecure because there were many persons at the Congress who were, we believe, the non-delegates and supporters of Ms. Ammons and who created an intimidating atmosphere for Mr. Valery Rukhledev, a lone-sitting delegate of Russia at the Congress and who ran for the Presidency position against Ms. Ammons. We believe that the elections for various CISS EC positions, especially for the position of the President, were mishandled, and were unfair and biased ones – these were done in violation of the CISS Constitution rules 3.1 and 3.1.11 as well as in total disregard of the CISS Motto "Equal Through Sports."

For example, we felt it to be improper, unethical and unprofessional to name Mr. Lennart Edwall of Sweden ( he is a long-time political rival of Mr. Rukhledev in the European Deaf Sports Organization leadership and long-time pro-Ammons backer ) as a chief scrutineer ( or, a chief vote counter ). We also believe that it was not right for Ms. Ammons to deny many persons from other countries, including Russia, who wanted to attend the Congress just as the interested observers and who also wanted to give moral and spiritual support for Mr. Rukhledev during his work at the Congress as a lone delegate of Russia. We also believe that the roles of Mr. Jerald Jordan and Mr. Knud Sondergaard, also pro-Ammons backers, during the Congress election sessions, were inappropriate, including the improper and unethical role of Mr. Jordan, the Honorary Member of the CISS for Life, when he was seen in the public by personally lobbying and encouraging other delegates to vote for Ms. Ammons and against Mr. Rukhledev. We also believe that during the presidential election contest involving Ms. Ammons, a representative of the USA, and Mr. Rukhledev, a representative of Russia, one of the four scrutineers selected, as we found out, was an Ammons friend and person from the USA by the name of Mr. Edward Ingham, therefore, it was totally wrong to have an USA person to act as the vote counter. We also noticed that Ms.Tiffany Granfors, who is the CISS-paid Home Administrator from the USA, lobbied various delegates to vote for Ms. Ammons. We also believe that the handling of the Proposal Number 70 by the USADSF against the Russian Committee of the Deaf Sports inside and outside of the Congress was improper, intimidating, intentional, defamatory, personal and damaging one for Mr. Rukhledev in particular and for the delegation of Russia in general."

Message Number Five:

"The elections were unfair and undemocratic ones. For example, there were many Americans ( all of them were pro-Ammons supporters ) at the Congress premises, while the Russian Rukhledev was sitting alone. What happened? Was Rukhledev forbidden to have a second delegate plus an interpreter plus his own election campaign team to be present at the Congress? We want the Congress organizers to answer these questions."

Message Number Six:

"This got to be the biggest farce in the history of the CISS. If the Sports anarchists rule, then I can simply say that those delegates are STUPID. The bottom line is this…it pays to be a sports anarchist, as it provides rich dividends to them."

Message Number Seven:

"Let set the record straight…there are not enough teas in China to persuade me that all is well at the Australia Games. Realistically speaking, we should applaud to a bunch of assholes running the CISS with their mechanism of maneuvering schemes to persuade the Delegates as well as non-Delegates that Rafael ( Mr. Pinkhasov Pinchas ) is a bad boy and that they are good motivated officers looking out in the best interest of the CISS. THEY WON. I am somewhat astonished that the CISS officers hired Gestapo to prevent Rafael near the CISS organization. Hiring internal police to shadow Rafael costs big bucks paid for by the CISS. I would love to see their account books which I am certain are padded. I am somewhat intrigued over the fact what sort of label put on Rafael to justify their aforementioned actions by the CISS?

Is he a Terrorist…Murderer…Crook…Thief…Plaintiff connected with his lawsuits against the CISS as well as the USADSF?"

Message Number Eight:

"Mr. Pinkhasov Pinchas, the CISS/Deaflympics Ombudsman:

We are very glad to know that there is such an Ombudsman in our Deaflympics movement like yourself. We see you as the most knowledgeable, appropriate, articulate and strong deaf figure in the areas of sports, law, equality and history of the CISS/Deaflympic Games. We were told by our delegates that the elections were unfair and one-sided. There was too much pro-USA and pro-Ammons influence and presence at the Congress.

Now, we ask you the three questions:

1. Was it legal for Ms. Ammons to forbid Russia to have its second delegate to participate at the Congress? 2. Is there any constitutional way to annul the elections? 3. Is there any way for all the CISS Nation-Members to set up new elections, according to the CISS rules and regulations?"

Here are my answers:

Of course, it was illegal for Ms. Ammons to prevent the nation of Russia from having its second delegate to participate at the Congress. This was in violation of the CISS Constitution Rule Number 10.2.4.

If the dues-paying CISS Nation-Members, by erasing their long-stranding indifference, cowardice and apathy, start to cooperate with each other and to act as one strong and united team then they will have the constitutional and moral right to annul the elections held recently at Melbourne. Unsatisfied with the election's outcome at Melbourne, these CISS Nation-Members, including Russia, may issue a protest petition before the CISS EC – this will be in accordance with the CISS Constitution Rule Number 15. If successful with this protest petition, then these CISS Nation-Members, under unusually exceptional circumstances, may request the CISS EC to begin to explore the possibility of organizing the Extraordinary CISS Congress, pursuant to the Rules 4.2, 10.3 and 10.3.1. In the event the normally pro-USA-influenced CISS EC rejects this idea, then again the Rule 15 of the CISS Constitution as well as the CISS Motto "Equal Through Sports" might be applied, in which the new elections for the office of the CISS President might eventually be arranged and held.

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