World Sailing elects Quanhai Li (China) as new President
by Richard Gladwell/Sail-World.com/nz 1 Nov 2020 11:43 UTC
2 November 2020
World Sailing © World Sailing
World Sailing Vice President Quanhai Li (CHN) has been elected as President of World Sailing for a four year term, after a run-off against the incumbent Kim Andersen (DEN) who was entitled to stand for a second four year term.
Against expectations Andersen was the clear winner of the first round of voting recording 53 votes to Li's 39 with the other two candidates Gerardo Seeliger (ESP) and Scott Perry (URU) recording 21 and 15 votes respectively. Seeliger asked for his support to be transferred to Li, who picked up an extra 29 votes in the second round, while Andersen scored just 7 new votes in the second round.
Seven new Vice Presidents were elected, four men and three women were elected, meaning there has been a complete cleanout at the top table.
The Vice President results are as follows:
Tomasz Chamera (POL) 102 votes
Sarah Kenny (AUS) 94 votes
Philip Baum (RSA) 85 votes
Yann Rocherieux (FRA) 79 votes
Duriye Ozlem Akdurak (TUR) 77 votes
Marcus Spillane 69 (IRL) votes
Cory Sertl 66 (USA) votes
World Sailing regulations require that that the top two men are elected, as are the top two polling women, and the next three Vice Presidents are selected in order of the highest polling remaining candidates. As it transpired the gender equality requirement was superflous, as three women made the final seven on merit of votes cast.
The unsuccessful candidates for Vice President were:
Malav Shroff (IND) 61 votes
Cary Lee Byerley (ANT) 59 votes
Luca Devoti (ITA) 46 votes
Yui Shing Tong (HKG) 42 votes
Jorgen Stang Heffermehl (NOR) 39 votes
William Canfield (ISV) 22 votes
Riccardo Simoneschi (ITA) 21 votes
Jan Dawson (NZL) 20 votes
The vote was conducted using an online system, with the requirement waived for voting Councillors to be present at the meeting. As a result more of the samller nations were able to vote than usual.