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The election for the chairman of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) has been crippled in an unprecedented manner.
The election of the new chairman and vice chairman was scheduled at the ITTF annual general meeting held in Doha, Qatar, shortly after the end of the World Table Tennis Championships on the 27th. Elections to set up a new chairman and executive as ITTF Chairman Petra Schuring's four-year term ends. With current chairman Söring seeking a second term, ITTF Vice Chairman Karyl al-Mohannadi and Asian Table Tennis Federation Chairman (Qatar) Mohamed El Hasen Ahmed Salem, president of the Mauritanian Table Tennis Association, ran.
The general meeting was a meeting in which the chairman of the Korea Sports Council, Yoo Seung Min, challenged the vice chairman of the ITTF and drew attention. The process in which 17 candidates from around the world run and eight people are voted at the general meeting on the same day. Ahead of the election, President Yoo left for Doha, Qatar, shortly after the Gimhae National Youth Sports Festival student-parent meeting on the 24th, and completed a presentation in front of representatives from 206 member countries on the 26th. On-site support for the young global sports leader, who became the first IOC athlete in table tennis as the champion of the Athens Olympics and the president of the Korea Table Tennis Association.
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However, due to the unexpected disruptions of the chairman's election, the vice chairman's vote ended without even starting. With current chairman Petra Söring and Asian Table Tennis Federation president Karyl Almohannadi being extremely close, the war of nerves was fierce even before the election. Chairman Almohan Nadi questioned the reliability of electronic voting, saying that there was a high possibility of fraudulent voting and manipulation, and in the end, voting was conducted by hand, not by electronic voting. Representatives from 185 member states who attended the General Assembly came out one by one in alphabetical order to vote. After about an hour of voting, ITTF Secretary-General Raul Kalin announced the results of the vote. Current Chairman Söring got 104 votes, and Chairman Almohan Nadi got 102 votes, which is even closer than expected. Chairman Soaring, who was announced as the elected president, took the podium and `will work harder.'The hall began to tremble shortly after announcing his short speech. Suspicions have been raised that the number of member states participating in online voting is different from that first announced by President Raul Kalin. The first online member state vote announced was 16 votes, but the result of the vote was suspected to have turned it into a total of 21 votes.
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Eighty-seven out of 104 votes for Chairman Söring were on-site, 17 were online votes, 98 out of 102 votes for Chairman Almohan Nadi were on-site, and four were online votes. In terms of on-site voting alone, Chairman Almohan Nadi was ahead by 11 votes. When suspicions of online voting manipulation were raised, the general assembly president quickly became a mess. Each member state rushed to hold the microphone and criticized the executive, questioning transparency and fairness. "Reveal the login time of the online voting member states"Online voting is invalid because we have decided not to conduct electronic voting"The chairman is Karil (Almohan Nadi)" in his own voice. He called for the immediate resignation of the ITTF executive who conducted the entire election process, saying he could not trust it. It was an incredible sight to believe that the election of an international sports organization with a long history and tradition, with the largest number of member states in the world. A member state representative said "I don't care who gets elected. But in our sport, such a procedure is absolutely unacceptable. It can't be in 100 years of history. We are the ITTF. You guys are our shame,' he said in his voice. As the situation showed little signs of calming down, ITTF CEO Steve Dayton and the executive announced the end of the general meeting. It was decided to discuss future measures and announce them, and the general meeting was completed urgently. Chairman Almohan Nadi's side expressed a strong willingness to take legal action. Chairman Yoo, who took a busy time to fly to Doha for the vice chairman election, and Vice Chairman Hyun Jung-hwa, who attended the general meeting as a representative of the Korea Table Tennis Association, also expressed disappointment, saying, `I've never seen anything like this before.'
Reporter Jeon Young-ji sky4us@sportschosun.com
This article was translated by Naver AI translator.
