Russian Kremlev earns new four-year mandate as IBA president

Russian Umar Kremlev has been re-elected as International Boxing Association (IBA) President by acclamation since he was the only candidate deemed eligible to stand in the Extraordinary Election Congress in Istanbul, Turkey which is also being attended by the Boxing Federation of Kenya (BFK) President Anthony Jamal.

Dutch man Boris van der Vorst was expected to challenge Kemlev but was ruled to be ineligible by the Boxing Independent Integrity Unit Interim Nomination Unit (BIIU) after failing to respect the electoral code, a decision he appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

He will serve for a fresh four-year term until 2026, and has promised to keep working for the boxing community.

"We have to follow the rules, we shouldn't violate the rules and we must protect the most important assets we have, which are the trainers, athletes and National Federations. I don't want us in our sporting organization to have political discussions; I would like us to understand that IBA is a sporting organization which is developing boxing. For National Federations, IBA is such an organization that should support them, help them,” said Kremlev.

Hartley, as well as USA Boxing executive director Mike McAtee, Swedish Boxing Federation President Per-Axel Sjöholm and Danish Boxing Association President Lars Brovil; were also banished under the same ruling by the BIIU, meaning they could not stand to be part of the Board.

155 delegations attended the second day of the Congress whereby Didier Wicht,  Stacha Balmat and Umar Akhtar were elected as the new members of the Audit Committee Election.

Bernhard Welten of Switzerland and Francois Strydom of South Africa were the scrutineers of the elections of the Independent Directors with Bertrand Mendouga of Cameroon and Felipe Martinez of Spain withdrawing their candidature for the positions of the Independent Directors.

Elise Seignolle of United States, Pearl Dlamini of Eswatini, Kristy Harris of Australia,  Volodymyr Prodyvus of Ukraine, Yousuf Ali Al-Kazim of Qatar were also elected as Independent Directors joined by female candidates Zsuzsanna Toth of Hungary and  Marta Forcen Celaya of Spain.

Other members who joined the Independent Directors after receiving enough votes were Morocco’s Abdeljaoaud Belhaj ,  Dian Gomes of Sri Lanka and  Zhou Jinqiang of China.