As the first woman to vie for the top job in athletics, she will face the incumbent, SM Muthu, and former MAF chief Shahidan Kassim in the election on June 12.
The highest-ranking woman in MAF thus far has been former track queen Mumtaz Jaafar, who was not nominated to defend the post of deputy president because she does not belong to any state affiliate.
MAF’s constitution allows for anyone to contest for the post of president but only affiliate members can stand for the other positions.
Twelve state affiliates have three votes each, with the Selangor and Sabah athletics associations (AAs) out of the equation after being de-registered for irregularities.
The nominations for the election of new office bearers for the next two years were announced today at the Olympic Council of Malaysia boardroom.
Businesswoman Nurhayati was nominated by the Perak AA, which is helmed by her father, Karim Ibrahim, a former MAF president.
Observers did not discount the possibility of Nurhayati, who is also seeking one of the four vice-president’s post, paving the way for Shahidan in the run-up to the election.
Nurhayati, a former school athlete, was president of the Selangor AA (SAA) until it was de-registered by the sports commissioner for violation of rules under the Sports Development Act.
In October last year, several SAA committee members held an extraordinary general meeting to remove Muthu as president over allegations of misappropriation of more than RM100,000 from the association’s fixed deposit account.
Muthu was nominated by Melaka AA while federal territories minister Shahidan, who was the MAF president from 2008 to 2012 and is the present Malaysia swimming chief, got the support of Perlis AA.
Terengganu AA president Wan Hisham Wan Salleh’s candidacy was rejected because his papers were not in order.
Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur (FTKL) AA president V Pulainthiran and Melaka AA chief Fadzil Abu Bakar Wan Hashim are vying for the No 2 post.
Six people are vying for the vice-president’s posts. They are: Nurhayati, Syamsul Bani Abdullah (FTKL AA), Josephine Kang (Sarawak AA), Mark William Ling (Negeri Sembilan AA), R Annamalai (Pahang AA) and Salahuddin Satar (Johor AA).