Kukkiwon held the ‘2022 1st Temporary Board of Directors Meeting’ in the Kukkiwon lecture room at 10 am on January 25 (Tuesday) with 19 of 21 registered directors in attendance, and deliberated and decided on amendments to the Articles of Association.

The key to this amendment of the Articles of Association is to expand the electoral college for the election of the president to about 1,250 persons with the right to recommendation review (excluding organizations). Previously, the electoral college consisted of more than 70 persons (maximum of 75) including executives of existing domestic and foreign Taekwondo organizations who contributed to the development of Kukkiwon.

It is expected that about 940 people in Korea and 310 people abroad will become the electoral college as it is decided to randomly select 10% of each of the domestic and overseas judges who have recommended a review over the past two years.

The previous electoral college, including executives of organizations representing Taekwondo, was deleted from the Articles of Association, but the relevant discussion will continue.

In addition, the method of determining the elected person, which has been considered a poisonous clause, becomes simplified from that the voting is valid by a majority vote of the electoral college (including valid, invalid, and abstained), and the person who receives a majority of the valid vote is elected as the president to that the person who gets the most votes from the effective votes of the electoral college is decided as the elected. The holding of ‘online voting’ is also amended to be allowed even if there are no special reasons such as natural disasters or the influx of infectious diseases.

The registration eligibility of candidates that a candidate should receive recommendation of more than 50 and less than 70 members of Kukkiwon Taekwondo 4th Dan or higher holders will be deleted, and voting will not be held if there is only one candidate for the president.

Kukkiwon held the 2021 Regular Board Meeting on December 28 last year to propose amendments to the Articles of Association, which was prepared through the Articles of Association Amendments Subcommittee.

In the process of review on the agenda, there was a consensus about the expansion of the electoral college, but there were disagreements about the scope and method, so it was decided to review it again through a public hearing. In consequence, an online public hearing was held on Friday, January 14, and the Temporary Board of Directors Meeting followed.

Amendments to the Kukkiwon Articles of Association can only be implemented with a resolution of at least two-thirds of the total number of registered directors, and with the approval of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Kukkiwon plans to request the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism to approve the amendment to the Articles of Association, which has been reviewed and decided through this Temporary Board of Directors Meeting, and is planning to focus on improving the rules for the election of the president including the management rules for presidential election and online voting rules.