A moratorium should be declared and the Electoral Assembly of the Macedonian Olympic Committee (MOC) should be well prepared, which is scheduled for Wednesday, October 28, at 6 pm in the Skopje hotel “Alexander Palace”, said Zoran Gapic, former MOC Secretary General who he held this position from 1996 to 2007, when he retired from the Macedonian Olympic Movement and devoted himself to basketball.

In an interview with “Republika” Gapic says that at this moment there should be no MOC Electoral Assembly, at which a new president will be elected for the first time since the establishment of the MOC. The first and only president so far is Vasil Tupurkovski – Cile, who has been the head of the MOC since its establishment, for 28 years. Two candidates are vying for his position – former athlete Aleksandra Vojneska Zikova and former President of the Basketball Federation Daniel Dimevski, who was also an adviser to the Government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. The Anti-Corruption Commission led a case against him at the time when he was an adviser to Zoran Zaev in the Government. Using his power in the Government, Dimovski obtained the sports center Kale for himself.

Aleksandra Vojnevska Zikova has been President of the Sports Council at the Agency for Youth and Sports for 3 years and has been President of the Athletic Federation of Macedonia for 1 year. In the period from 2017 to 2019, while she was the President of the Sports Council at the AYS, Vojneska awarded the Athletic Federation about 10 million denars. In just one year, while he held two fpositions, she transferred twice as much money to herself, ie about 20 million denars.

There must be a moratorium, the Assembly must be well prepared and the candidates must present their work programs, how they see sports and what their plans are, but also their ambitions, says Gapic.

According to him, the country does not have a strategy for the development of sports that is at a very low level.

Let us understand that Olympism is a movement, not a policy, and the candidates who have applied for this high position must know that. Olympism is a way of life, Olympus is fair play, a knightly fight, with honest intentions in which the candidates should have greater capacities than the others. They should have a vision, a lot of contacts abroad, a lot of acquaintances, friends, international cooperation. I doubt any of them have these qualities. Olympism and politics do not go together. You do not need painful ambitions to be president of the MOC, you need knowledge, skills, knowledge of the situation, says Gapic.