Harrigan: I will not contest NOC presidency race

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National Olympic Committee (NOC) executive member, Wilbur Harrigan, has made it clear that he is not interested in becoming president of the organisation.
The vice president, who has had several public spats with current president and the country’s Minister of Sports, EP Chet Greene over his dual role, said his only mission when he supported Greene back in 2008, was to beef up the now minister’s portfolio ahead of the general elections.
“I met Chet Greene many years ago and I thought that the president was a good person for sports and I gave him my support. I also indicted to him, beyond the shadow of a doubt that I was not interested in the presidency. My job was to ensure that president Greene got elected to active politics,” he said.
It would take very dire circumstances, Harrigan said, for his position to change where contesting the elections is concerned.
“Right now, if the NOC was falling down and I had to serve, then I would serve but I know it won’t fall down. I did not have any interest and I still don’t have any interest. If I had an interest, it’s because of the many wars that Chet Greene and [I] had,” he said. “I believe that when we meet at meetings, we are cordial, we do the business of the NOC.”
Harrigan maintains that Greene’s dual role as head of the NOC and Minister of Sports presents a potential for conflict of interest.
“He’s in a conflict of interest and I think we can do much more for this country if he concentrates at a different level. It does not look good, feel good, smell good and if he wants to operate at a higher level, the two-hat system in sports, it’s not going to work. People are fearful [that] once Mr Greene sits in that seat, people are not going to be willing to express their feelings,” he said.
The NOC elections, according to Greene, will be held later this year.
President of the Basketball Association, Daryl Matthew and head of the Athletics Association, Everton Cornelius, have both expressed their desire to contest the position.

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