Africa-Press – Rwanda. Members of the Rwanda Swimming Federation (RSF) will vote for the new executive committee during elections which have been rescheduled in May, Times Sport has learnt.
Former swimmer Pamela Girimbabazi has been in office as federation president since her historic election in January 2020 when she became the first woman to head a sports federation in Rwanda.
Her four-year term expired on January 26 and there had been calls for immediate election of new president as pointed out by members of the federation during the general assembly that took place in December 2023.
Girimbabazi will stay in office until a new president office is elected. Elections were tentatively scheduled to take place in February but they were delayed to give some clubs a chance to get legitimacy from Rwanda Government Board (RGB).
Only three clubs who have legitimacy are allowed to elect while other seven remaining teams are not eligible to vote.
Girimbabazi has assured that a new date for the elections will be announced in the near future as the clubs push to get legitimacy in time to be able to vote for the executive committee.
“We have some clubs that lacked documents, the deadline for finishing the process is one month and some of the clubs have submitted the documents required. So they are waiting and that is why elections were rescheduled to ensure that every member is involved in elections,” Girimbabazi told Times Sport.
“It will not go beyond May because we believe that clubs will have got documents from RGB so that they can vote, even if they get temporary legitimacy, we will proceed with elections,” she added.
Girimbabazi’s four-year term came to an end in January but she, along with her executive committee, will stay in office position until the May elections.
She previously hinted that she is considering extending her stay in office as she looks to run for another term ahead of the forthcoming elections whose date is yet to be announced.
As a former swimming star, Girimbabazi represented Rwanda in three consecutive Olympic Games from 2004 to 2008, making her the only Rwandan swimmer to achieve this feat.
In the 2004 Athens Games, Girimbabazi finished 48th in the women’s 100m breaststroke, clocking in at 1:50:39. She later switched to the 50m freestyle event at the 2008 Beijing Games, where she completed the race in 39 seconds and 78 microseconds, securing the 88th position.
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