Ugandan Official Threatened to Vote for Jean Todt

The battle for the presidency of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) has gotten uglier by the day, but then again we didn't expect it to be otherwise. However, if the latest discoveries on the presidential campaign prove to be true, Jean Todt may be forced to drop out of the race due to illegalities in the campaigning process.

According to an Ugandan motor sport official, a member of Jean Todt's campaigning staff has called him in recent months and threatened him to drop the support for Finnish candidate Ari Vatanen for the FIA elections this Friday. Although there is no clear evidence that this in fact happened, it seems that the Mail – British daily – has found out that such a call was made by a FIA official to the Ugandan motoring federation.

Jack Wavamunno, the president of the Ugandan motor racing club, even nominalized the member of the Todt staff that issued the aforementioned threats, in the person of proposed FIA vice-president for sport Surinder Thatti. The latter allegedly "said in one phone conversation that a sponsor was willing to pay an outstanding bill to the FIA," as reported by the GMM news agency.

“He said (the sponsor) could pay that, but only on the condition that I withdrew my candidacy and we gave our vote to his candidate, Todt," said Wavamunno, according to the Mail on Sunday.

We guess that's all triple F1 champion Jackie Stewart needed to publicly call for an immediate investigation on the matter, given that the Scot is a well-known supported of Vatanen and, most importantly, a constant protester against Max Mosley's regime.

These are not the first allegations regarding a potential illegal campaign sustained by Todt for the FIA seat, as recent reports have shown than several active members of the FIA have lobbied for the Frenchman before the Friday elections. That could interfere with the French law regarding the neutrality of an election process within the borders of France.