The world governing body for taekwondo unveiled on Wednesday the list of approved candidates for its 2021 leadership elections, set to be held virtually on October 11.
Usually held at the site of the World Championships, World Taekwondo was forced to move its elections online this year after the 2021 competition, meant to be held in Wuxi, China this October, was postponed to 2022 at the request of the city’s government.
A total of 40 candidates are standing for 17 seats on the World Taekwondo Council, the organization’s executive body. Asia, Europe and the Americas each get four seats on the Council, while Africa has three and Oceania two. Because of a new rule adopted this year that at least one Council member per continent must be a woman, a record 11 female candidates have put their names forward this election cycle.
Among the six people vying for Oceania’s two Council seats is Pita Taufatofua of Tonga, who has become famous as the shirtless flagbearer for his country at the last three Olympic Games. The complete list of candidates can be found here.
Meanwhile, incumbent four-term President Chungwon Choue of South Korea, first elected in 2004, is running unopposed just as he did four years ago. Choue last faced opposition in 2013 from fellow South Korean Moon-Jong Hong, though Hong went on to withdraw his candidacy shortly before the vote took place.
World Taekwondo members will also elect an Auditor; the race for which will be competitive despite only involving incumbents. The federation currently has two Auditors: Dalibor Krpan of Croatia and Ali Sagirkaya of Turkey, but an elimination of one of their positions means that Krpan and Sagirkaya will battle it out between themselves for the role.
Vice Presidents of World Taekwondo will, for the most part, not be elected in October, as five Vice Presidential slots are automatically given to the elected heads of taekwondo’s continental confederations and two others will be appointed by the President. However, in an effort to promote an increased gender balance in leadership, the female Council candidate who receives the most total votes will additionally be elevated to Vice President this year.
These elections will be the first to be held under World Taekwondo’s governance reforms made in April. Besides the aforementioned Council and Vice President female representation quotas, first-time candidates must now be under 70 years of age, those standing for re-election must be under 80, and elected officials can no longer serve more than three terms from when the reforms took effect.
The revisions also reduced the President’s power to unilaterally install members of the Council, instead increasing the number that must be voted in by World Taekwondo’s General Assembly. In 2017, only 12 Council Member positions were elected and four were appointed by President Choue.
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