The detailed schedule for the 55th Korea Football Association (KFA) presidential election, which was canceled twice, has been confirmed.
The KFA's election management committee has decided to hold the presidential election on Wednesday amid a new organization on Tuesday. The KFA held its second meeting on Tuesday. The presidential election will be held at the Korea Football Center in Shinmun-ro, Seoul.
The elector list lottery will be held on the morning of the 11th, the third day of the steering committee. The lottery will be held by outside companies, and for fairness, candidates' representatives and neutral observers will be present at the lottery site.
The list will be viewed and challenged for three days from the 12th to the 14th, and the electoral list will be confirmed at the election management committee on the 15th. At the first meeting on the 3rd, the election management committee decided to maintain the "candidate status" of Chung Mong-kyu, chairman of the KFA, a visiting professor of sports record analysis at the Graduate School of Records and Information Science in Shinmunseon Myungji University, and Huh Jung-moo, former chairman of the Hana Citizen Board in Daejeon.
Originally, the presidential election was scheduled to take place on March 8. However, the election was postponed as the court asked the KFA for a provisional injunction against Chung-moo on January 7, a day before the election, saying that the presidential election was being unfair. The election committee rescheduled the election to January 23. However, as candidates Heo Jung-moo and Shin Moon-sun protested again, all members of the election committee resigned. The second election also went up in smoke.
Candidate Chung Mong-gyu said on the 4th, "Although it is late, I am fortunate that a new election management committee has been formed for the election and the election schedule has been confirmed. We look forward to successfully conducting fair elections that meet the public's standards by supplementing procedural defects raised in the court."
Candidate Shin Moon-sun and Heo Jung-moo also agreed on the "schedule" on the day, but called for more electors. The two contenders have also argued that Chung Mong-kyu should not be recognized as a candidate because the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has asked the KFA to impose severe punishment beyond the suspension of his qualifications.
After the second meeting, the election management committee said, "We are in charge of running a fair election process so that all candidates can compete under equal conditions, and we are doing our best to maintain this principle in this election."
Regarding the qualification screening of candidates, the election management committee said, "We fully understand the problem consciousness of the candidate qualification screening raised by some candidates and the concerns about the fairness of the election, and based on it, we carefully reviewed it and made a fair judgment. Candidate Shin Moon-seon and Huh Jung-moo claimed that the election management committee did not deliberate on Chung Mong-kyu's right to run for the election, but this is not true. We will officially discuss this at two election management committee meetings held on February 3 and 8, 2025."
And he explained, "As a result of the meeting, the court cannot clearly cover the existence of the reason for disqualification regarding the "social object, etc." in the articles of association, which should precede the process of determining the existence of the reason for disqualification, and that there is room for dispute over whether the Election Commission has the authority to make a judgment on this, so we decided to maintain the qualifications of candidates who have already completed registration, considering the fact that they cited the provisional disposition application such as suspension of the validity of the candidate registration."
Regarding candidate Huh Jung-moo, as the election was postponed, there was a review and confirmation of qualifications in relation to age. According to Article 23 (2) of the articles of association of the KFA, a candidate must be under 70 years of age on the day of the election. Candidate Huh Jung-moo, born on January 13, 1955, was over 70 years old on election day. The Election Management Committee emphasized, "The nature of the presidential election was defined as not a re-election, but as a result, it was confirmed that the qualifications of the previously registered candidates remained the same because the postponed election was resumed rather than a re-election that had to be re-registered."
The election management committee continued, "Newspaper and Huh Jung-moo are expressing themselves as if the election management committee is trying to protect a specific candidate through a recent media release, but the election management committee can only make a judgment to the extent permitted by the articles of association and regulations to protect the fairness of the election process. I would like to emphasize once again that maintaining legal stability and following fair procedures are the most important role of the election management committee before determining the advantages and disadvantages of a specific candidate."
There are 194 electors in the 55th KFA presidential election. Candidate Shin Moon-seon and Heo Jung-moo have requested that the number of electors be increased to 300. They say it is impossible to expand the electoral college ranks according to regulations.
"There is no reason for anyone to oppose the principles proposed by Shinmun-seon and Huh Jung-moo that guarantee fairness in elections and guarantee participation in grassroots local football," the election management committee said. "However, the election management committee can only run elections within the scope of the KFA presidential election management regulations. It does not have the authority to decide on structural reforms such as expanding the size of the presidential electors and changing the distribution method by job function."
Currently, the number of electors can be composed of 100 or more and 300 or less according to the KFA articles of association. However, the distribution by function and the number of electors accordingly are determined in accordance with Article 8 of the Presidential Election Management Regulations (Composition of Electoral College). The revision of the regulations can only be implemented after a resolution by the KFA board of directors and then approval by the Korean Sports and Olympic Committee.
The election management committee said, "Changing the method of selecting electors during the election at the request of a specific candidate could undermine the legitimacy of the election process 바카라사이트. The committee deeply agrees that discussions need to continue in a direction that can reflect various opinions of soccer players in the future KFA presidential election. However, this election should be operated fairly in accordance with the procedures set by the current regulations."