Days before executive members in the Bahamas Olympic Committee (BOC) head to the polls, president Wellington Miller tried to clear the air on a number of matters. Miller said he is not listening to anything on the "rumor mill" and is asking persons to not spread or create stories, especially without having proof. The BOC elections will be held on Friday, at the Paul Farquharson Building, at the Royal Bahamas Police Force Headquarters, at 7 p.m. "I feel confident, very, very confident," said Miller. "I have no second thoughts.

This is just like any other elections, people always bring out things a couple of days before. Nothing has changed, people have always done that. That is the way it is. I accept the responsibility that I am the leader and that is the way it is. When you are a leader, especially a national leader, those things will come out around election time. Then you have those devious people who want to seek position. Most of them are mad, especially those who are on the executive committee who cannot vote. The constitution was changed, saying that executives cannot vote, only federation heads.

You have to be a federation president or a member of the federation to vote. "Some of them are not members of federations so they can't vote and that is what they are feeling bad about, but that was a directive given by the IOC and I carried it out to the tee and made sure it happened. The IOC was trying to make those changes with us from 2001. When I came in, they gave me that mandate and I ran with it. As far as some of them are concerned, they are mad because they can't vote. They can't vote in this election and they will never be able to vote in any of the elections."

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) advised the BOC to make several changes to its constitution before holding an election. The international governing body was not about to approve or sanction the local elections until the necessary adjustments to the constitution were made. Two main points sent as recommendations were the executives should not vote in this or any future elections, and the secretary general's position should be filled by a representative who will not be paid. The newly revised constitution for the BOC was received in February, but it was not ratified until March.

Miller, who is seeking reelection, believes that the BOC will remain in good standing after the election, and the integrity of the committee will not be ruined by the "rumors", if reelected. He said: "I doubt these (rumors) will hurt my chances of being reelected. I showed the people, the delegates what I accomplished in four years and they totally agreed with it. They see the performance versus what those guys are saying. The performance, things that happened under my leadership are far more from what they are saying. They have no proof of these things what they are saying. Let them call names.

Let them say where the funds went. Who put the funds on their account, and then they can answer. You can't go about saying this and that. That is when people become scandalous. "I think corporate Bahamas will assist when need be. These people have no proof, let them say who did it. As long as you don't say it, that shows that you are weak and you don't know what you're saying. You only want to cause mischief."

The current executive members in the BOC are Miller, Romell Knowles, Kathryn Dillette, Larry Wilson, Dianne Miller, Algernon Cargill, Roy Colebrook, Don Cornish, David Morley, Mike Sands and Anton Sealy. Only 13 federations inclusive of athletics (track and field), swimming, tennis, basketball, boxing, cycling, football, gymnastics, judo, sailing, tae kwon do, volleyball and wrestling will vote.

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