A 16-hour drama at the Miklin Hotel in Accra, which could easily pass for Ghana’s first ever action movie with heavy police presence, one arrest and near fights, unfolded at the stormy Ghana Olympic Committee (GOC) elections last Saturday. All these however, could not stop favourite, Prof. Francis Dodoo, from being crowned the new president of the GOC. The former African triple jump champion and president of the Ghana Athletics Association (GAA), heads a new 19-member Executive Board which was jointly sworn in by one of the key characters in the long-standing GOC saga and immediate past president, Mr B. T. Baba, and the Director General of the National Sports Authority, Wolanyo Agra, at about 2 a.m. Sunday. Mr Baba and his team had set out the roadmap for filing nominations without which candidates would be disqualified on the floor of congress, but apparently the Francis Dodoo-led group had detected some flaws in the process and had written to the IOC to compel Mr Baba and his team to remove all bottlenecks to ensure free and fair elections. As per a letter tendered in as evidence on the floor of congress by the Francis Dodoo group, IOC had advised that since there were disagreements on the procedure, nominations for interested candidates could be opened on the floor of congress to provide a level playing field for all candidates, but that nearly stalled the process. With the exit of Baba after 13 years in office, his first vice, Frank Appiah, the president of the Ghana Cycling Association, Mohammed Sahnoon, a former Minister of State, Sam Pee Yalley, and the president of the Ghana Swimming Association, Theophilus Eze, resisted moves for fresh nominations and virtually held the entire process “hostage” while Nii Lante Vanderpuije of the Ghana Weightlifting Association, Nii Adotey Din Barimah of the Ghana Karate-Do Association, as well as the eventual winner, Prof Dodoo, of the Ghana Athletics Association, stood their grounds. As the two parties battled over what each claimed to be the right procedure, the independent observer from the GOC and ANOCA, Mr Joao Manuel Da Costa Afonso of Sao Tome and Pricipe, threatened to leave if no common ground was found and that he would send a report to IOC which could lead to Ghana’s second ban in three years. And against the backdrop that the entire old executive had been dissolved by congress prior to the elecions, the departure of the observer was going to leave a vacuum in the olympic body in Ghana. However, after failing to make any headway in 10 hours, the man from Sao Tome and Principe left for his hotel. But the 66-man Electoral College from 32 associations, which at that stage had been reduced to about 42 predominantly with members from Prof. Dodoo’s camp, passed a resolution for congress to go ahead with the elections to be supervised by the Ghana Electoral Commission and the results forwarded to IOC for a possible ratification. Just after the resolution had been passed, the observer, in the company of Mr Baba, who tried to ensure that he exited without any heckles, resurfaced for the process to go ahead despite the absence of some key members from the old executive camp. Indeed, the new contestants were added to the existing filed list for the elections. Prof. Dodoo had a landslide victory just as his other colleagues on the new executive board, winning by 38 votes, Kwadwo Adu Asare, vice-president of the Ghana Swimming Association, had two votes, while Emile Missodey had no vote. The first vice president position went to Dr Deborah Cubagee, with 39 votes, beating Frank Appiah who had one vote. The second vice was won by Nii Adotey Din Barimah I who won by 36 votes as against three votes by Madam Elizabeth King of the Ghana Hockey Association and the Ghana Prisons Service. Some elected members of the Executive Board were Richard Akpokavi of the Ghana Hockey Association as the Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, Nestor Gali, Ben Nunoo Mensah of the Cricket Association as treasurer, Haj ia Mahama Zinabu, assistant treasurer, Erasmus Adorkor, representing the National Sports Authority, an ex-officio member, likewise Lt Col Bedia, a representative of Affiliated Sports, and Wing Commander Ako Dadzie as a representative of Non-Olympic Sports. Other members were Nana Owusu, Ansah, Felix Kobina Frimpong of the Ghana Golf Association, Frank Owusu, David Ashong, Ken Arthur, former Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Ken Dzirasah, Lt Col Sharpe (Retired), Adjetey Sowah of Disabled Sports, Ambassador Ray Quarcoo of amateur boxing, and Frank Awuku of the Ghana Hockey Association. Prof. Dodoo becomes the fifth GOC president after Dr Nkansa-Gyane, K. N, Owusu, Peter Kpordugbe and B. T. Baba. Meanwhile, travel and tour agent, African Origin and Sports Tourism, has congratulated Prof. Dodoo and his team, hoping that they would take the Olympic movement to another level and reposition Ghana to chalk up more successes in international meets. A letter signed by the CEO of the company, Samson Deen, said the elections gave hope to Ghana sports and be an encouragement to Ghanaian athletes to step up their preparations towards the London 2012 Olympic Games.