Before the open curtain – the congress was live on Youtube – large protests erupted after Swedish Petra Sörling was re-elected as chairman of the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in Doha, Qatar.
She won the election against Khalil al-Mohannadi, Qatar, with the numbers 104 against 102 votes, but immediately after, several people grabbed the microphone to protest.
"A shame"
Among others, Khalil al-Mohannadi.
We do not accept this, said the opposing candidate from Qatar with an angry voice.
The election was carried out manually and took a long time, but there were also a number of eligible voters online. It is some of these votes that supporters of al-Mohannadi claim have been added to the voting list after the attendance list had been gone through.
The protests in the congress hall for nearly an hour after the election had ended.
This is a shame for our sport, said one of the delegates, who supported al-Mohannadi.
The board of directors called an emergency meeting. Later on Tuesday evening, a statement was published on ITTF's website where Sörling was declared the winner of the presidential election, but the annual meeting was interrupted by "outside parties". Therefore, the annual meeting will be reconvened for the election of vice chairman. A date for this will be announced by ITTF chairman Sörling, writes the association on the website.
Rumors of bribery
Dennis Lindahl, chairman of the Swedish Table Tennis Association and present during the voting, tells TT that he does not want to make a comment.
This year's presidential election has been surrounded by rumors. According to The New York Times, whistleblowers have made reports and the association confirms to the newspaper that an investigation has been conducted prior to the presidential election.
Khalil al-Mohannadi has been part of ITTF's board for nearly three decades, but was forced to leave his position as vice chairman during the period 2006–2009. This after an election of him was declared invalid due to bribery. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) then ruled that there was "convincing evidence that bribery had occurred" in connection with that election, reports news agency AP.
Petra Sörling was elected ITTF chairman for the first time in 2021 and became the first woman on the post.
