LAUSANNE, Nov 17, (AFP): The international sports tribunal on Tuesday dismissed accusations of dirty tricks made by a Kuwaiti challenger when longstanding International Shooting Federation (ISSF) president Olegario Vazquez Rana won reelection in 2014.

Sheikh Salman Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s information minister and former head of the Asian Shooting Confederation, had alleged “a number of violations” when Mexican Rana won the vote, said a Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) statement.

But a CAS panel “was unable to find sufficient evidence that the rule violations alleged by Sheikh Salman took place, and in addition, could not find any indication of how certain alleged failures could have affected, or did affect, the validity of the election.”

Rana, an 80-year-old business tycoon and former Olympic competitor, has led the international shooting federation since 1980 and is also a longstanding International Olympic Committee member. Sheikh Salman was an ISSF vice president when he sought to oust Rana in the vote in December 2014. Shooting is one of the most popular sports in Kuwait.