Board Elections Procedures, Timeline and Rules

This year’s World Sailing Annual Conference in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland, will include the 2025 World Sailing Elections where two vacant Vice-President positions will be voted on.

Two Vice President vacancies on the World Sailing Board have arisen due to Line Markert’s (DEN) tragic passing and Duriye Özlem Akdurak (TUR) having failed to comply with the World Sailing Constitution by not resigning as the President of the Turkish Sailing Federation within three (3) months of the November 2024 election.

As stipulated in the World Sailing Constitution, the two (2) Vice Presidents must be elected by the World Sailing Member National Authorities. They will serve the unexpired term of office of the two former directors (until the General Assembly in November 2028) and then they are eligible to be re-elected for a further two full terms of four (4) years (see Article 24.7).

All voting and campaigning will be strictly regulated by the World Sailing Election Rules and the Code of Ethics, and all activities will be overseen by the World Sailing Election Panel, comprising four independent legal and regulatory professionals, to ensure the election process is transparent, fair and adheres to the guidelines stipulated in the World Sailing Constitution.

Who can stand for election?

In order to be eligible as a candidate for Vice President, a candidate must be nominated by one MNA. MNAs may only nominate one candidate for Vice President. There is no requirement that the candidate is nominated by his/her own MNA, but they must be a member of the nominating MNA (or a member of an organisation affiliated to the MNA if the MNA does not have personal members).

Download the Candidate Application Pack here.

Gender parity

Under the terms of World Sailing’s new Constitution and as part of its Governance Reforms, taken together the President and seven Vice-Presidents must have an equal number of men and women. The current vacancies are for female Vice Presidents. Therefore only female candidates may be nominated by MNAs.

Who can vote?

Voting will take place during the General Assembly on 8 November 2025. Under the new Constitution World Sailing will offer a hybrid voting process. MNA appointed representatives in attendance both in person and remotely will be eligible to vote.

Any Member National Authority which has not paid its annual subscription for 2025, or is otherwise in arrears to World Sailing, may have its right to vote denied by the Board under Article 14.3. In addition, any Member National Authority which has been a member for more than two (2) years, and which did not pay both its 2024 and 2025 subscriptions within 30 days of their due date, is automatically prohibited from voting in the election. Please see Article 14.4.

Election Rules

The Election Rules can be downloaded here.

Under the World Sailing Regulations, a proven breach of the Election Rules is a disciplinary offence.

Any alleged breaches of the Election Rules are processed in accordance with the Election Rules, the World Sailing Regulations and the Code of Ethics. Further information is available here.

Candidates may at any time during the Campaign Period request guidance from the Election Committee and any such requests should be made to the Chief Executive Officer via elections@sailing.org.

Timeline