World Sailing’s 2020 Elections Get Under Way

9th October 2020

Credit: World Sailing

Voting in the 2020 election of World Sailing’s officers begins today, Friday 9 October, with the distribution of voting packs to the governing body’s member national authorities.

The first round of balloting closes a week from now, on Friday 16 October, at 3pm UTC (4pm IST) and the voting procedures can be found HERE.

World Sailing has appointed KPMG as the independent scrutineer to accept and validate votes on its behalf.

Denmark’s Ken Andersen, Quanhai Li of China, Uruguay’s Scott Perry and Gerardo Seeliger of Spain are the four candidates in the running for World Sailing’s top post this year.

In the event that none of the four receives more than 50% of the votes in the first round, two further rounds are scheduled for 20-23 October and 26-29 October to conduct run-off votes.

The results will be announced during World Sailing’s General Assembly scheduled for Sunday 1 November.

Meanwhile, if there is a tie between any vice-presidential candidates, a run-off vote will be held from 1-4 November.

As previously reported on Afloat.ie, USA-based Marcus Spillane is Ireland’s candidate for the position of World Sailing vice president.

Life-long sailor Spillane is treasurer of Irish Sailing’s Olympic Steering Group as well as president of the International 49er and Nacra 17 classes.

In other news, World Sailing issued a statement accusing a member of its Ethics Commission of “interfering” in the upcoming presidential election.

The organisation said the actions of Ng Ser Miang, an IOC member from Singapore, “are deemed unacceptable and condemned by World Sailing”.

It added: “For an individual to misuse their position in order to intervene in the election and politics of an autonomous international federation goes against all good governance practices.”

World Sailing’s statement did not specify the alleged infractions, but Inside the Games reports that the former sailor is accused of canvassing against the election of incumbent Andersen and current vice president Perry.

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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World Sailing Information

World Sailing is the world governing body for the sport of sailing, officially recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).

Founded in 1907, World Sailing's vision is for a world in which millions more people fall in love with sailing; inspired by the unique relationship between sport, technology and the forces of nature; we all work to protect the waters of the world.

World Sailing is made up of 144 Member National Authorities, the national governing bodies for sailing around the world and 117 World Sailing Class Associations.