Election 2020 in World Sailing

The election of the President and seven Vice-Presidents will be conducted via an electronic ballot. World Sailing Member National Authorities, in good standing with World Sailing, are eligible to vote and when casting their ballot, must select at least two male and two female candidates for Vice President.

The results of the ballot will be announced on 1 November 2020 at the General Assembly which will be held as a virtual meeting.

Eligible candidates have been endorsed by at least five World Sailing MNAs with the term of office beginning at the close of the General Assembly, at which the Board of Directors are elected for a period of four years.

Candidates eligible for election at the 2020 General Assembly, in alphabetical order by surname, are:

Presidential Candidates
– Kim Andersen (DEN)
– Quanhai Li (CHN)
– Scott Perry (URU)
– Gerardo Seeliger (ESP)

Vice-Presidential Candidates:
– Duriye Özlem Akdurak (TUR)
– Philip Baum (RSA)
– Cary Lee Byerley (ANT)
– William Canfield (ISV)
– Tomasz Chamera (POL)
– Jan Dawson (NZL)
– Luca Devoti (ITA)
– Jørgen Stang Heffermehl (NOR)
– Sarah Kenny (AUS)
– Yann Rocherieux (FRA)
– Cory Sertl (USA)
– Malav Shroff (IND)
– Riccardo Simoneschi (ITA)
– Marcus Spillane (IRL)
– Yui Shing Tong (HKG)

Click on the names above for further insight into the candidates. Alongside biographical information, candidates were also invited to supply manifesto documents and video messages.

Voting Process

The 2020 General Assembly will be held remotely and will be conducted in line with World Sailing’s Remote Voting Procedure which is available here.

The first round of voting will be held from 9-16 October 2020. This will be the main voting period for the Presidential and Vice-Presidential election.

In the event that no Presidential candidate 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 of the election will be announced during the General Assembly by the Election Committee on 1 November.

If there is a tie between any Vice-Presidential candidates, a run-off vote will commence on 1 November and conclude on 4 November.

Controlling and regulating the process is World Sailing’s Election Committee chaired by Philip Cotton and ably supported by Melanie Willmore and David Kellett, who have overseen the whole process so far. In addition, KPMG have been appointed as the Independent Scrutineer.