World Sailing Federation: "No conclusive evidence of failure of the electoral system"

Two days after a telephone conference between the members of the Executive Committee of the World Sailing Federation, President Kim Andersen and his team have rejected the allegations of possible irregularities in the selection of the Olympic sailing disciplines for the 2024 Olympic Games. The president's statement reads:

Following the publication of the Council minutes, there have been a number of emails circulating suggesting that the recording of the election results during the Council meeting may be incorrect.

We work with the highest possible level of transparency in the decision-making processes for our sport. On request, this also includes the disclosure of the complete election results with the minutes of the meeting as well as a complete video recording, which was available live and is still available as a playback on our website for the meeting.

Three Council members have officially informed the World Sailing Executive Committee that they believe that one or more of their votes in the ballot for Proposal 1 of 037-18 were not recorded correctly. The World Sailing Executive Committee reviewed the information provided by the Board Office on the voting process during a monthly conference call on 3 December. Each Council member was provided with their own randomly assigned voting unit (ID). Upon receiving this unit, each Council member individually registered for it. The voting system records the vote sent by each unit against its unique ID.

All voting units were individually tested in the event room before the meeting. This ensured that the votes could be cast correctly at the touch of a button: 1, 2, 3 (Yes, No, Abstain). The connection of each unit was then checked again on the morning of the Council meeting. All units functioned correctly.

We examined the technical reports of the voting system (as provided by the voting company) and the results published in the minutes to ensure that there were no discrepancies. In addition, two test votes were conducted at the beginning of the Council meeting. The results are recorded. The aim of the test votes was to ensure that all voting units correctly transmitted the respective voting decisions. In the negative case, they would have been replaced and the respective Council member would have individually registered for a new voting unit.

Element not implemented: The voting units of the Council members who are now alleging that their voting decision was not recorded correctly were used at the annual meeting. We have analysed whether there may have been incorrectly reported voting results from these MNA members or any pattern of incorrect records on all of these voting units. There are none.

The Council recorded what happened during the meeting and we have always used the electronic recording as a product of the voting system as a reliable record of the votes. The same electronic voting system has been used since at least 2009.

Element not implemented:

Under the regulations, the content of the minutes is a matter for the Chair of the meeting who has reviewed the comments made by the Council members. In addition, the Constitution of the World Sailing Federation states: "If minutes of meetings are found to be erroneous (e.g. due to spelling mistakes or incorrect references), the formal documents of the meeting should be amended." This point is confirmed by the Constitutional Committee. Nevertheless, prior to the final decision, it is the view of the Board that the minutes should stand as written and the voting results as recorded and captured by the voting system.

Element not implemented:

Element not implemented: he three members, who are not publicly known by name, are planning further steps in this matter, but it initially remained unclear.