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≡ ITTF PRESIDENCY ≡
After a tedious, 70-minute voting procedure at the International Table Tennis Federation’s Annual General Meeting in Doha (QAT), incumbent Petra Sorling (SWE) was elected by a tight, 104-102 vote over Qatar’s Khalil Al-Mohannadi.
But that was only the beginning, as a series of speakers in the room loudly protested the vote, saying that when the member roll call of national federations was made at the beginning of the meeting – almost 10 hours earlier – 16 were acknowledged to be online, but 21 voted (17-4 in favor of Sorling).
This went on for more than a half hour, screaming at ITTF Secretary General Raul Calin (ESP) and Executive Vice President Graham Symons (AUS), asking for the countries who joined later and insisting that late arrivals (beyond the roll call) could not vote.
It was noted that 16 members were online when the roll call was taken, two more came in during the early voting of propositions early in the session and three more came in prior to the presidential election.
One speaker demanded a re-vote only of federations physically present in the room. Eventually, the technical team was asked to show the federations which voted online and when they were present.
A half-dozen speakers took turns yelling at Calin and Symons, with absolute chaos in the room; one shouted:
“This is not allowed online. When the start, the roll call, you cannot put in anyone [later] from online.”
After almost an hour of yelling, Symons rather calmly noted that 208 member federations were registered to attend, that the purpose of the roll call was to establish a quorum and that a member association who arrives late – in-person or online – has the right to vote. He added, “there is an avenue of appeal and that is all that can be done.”
That did not stop the protests. More speakers criticized the result, acclaimed Al-Mohannadi as President, and accused Calin of favoritism. Symons suspended the Annual General Meeting and said that an emergency meeting of the ITTF Executive Board would be held to decide what the next steps would be.
More speakers asked for a selection committee and not the Executive Board, since a new Executive Board was to have been elected at this Annual General Meeting, but was not as the turmoil took over before any other elections could be held.
Observed: The vote was close and those behind Al-Mohannadi, in control in the room in Qatar, were not about to accept it without a challenge. The difference between the quorum roll call and those who arrived late online gave them an opening which does not appear to be sufficient to change the election result, but it was certainly enough to cause a wild scene which will not soon be forgotten.
Not by the federation and not by the International Olympic Committee, which will have monitored this closely. For the ITTF, this is a calamity it didn’t need and doesn’t want, but it has it now.
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/Update/The ITTF posted a message about four hours later on its Web site which confirmed Sorling’s election and added:
“The AGM had to be suspended after it was disrupted by outsiders.
“As a result of this suspension, the AGM will need to be reconvened specifically to conduct the election of the Vice Presidents. ITTF President Petra Sörling will announce the new date in due course. This resumption must take place no later than November 2025 to comply with the four-year term of office for the Executive Board, as stipulated in the ITTF Constitution (Article 1.87.1).”
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