LAUSANNE, Switzerland — After a court ruled that his election opponent was wrongly barred, International Boxing Association president Umar Kremlev said Wednesday he wants a new contest.
A clean election could be key for the International Olympic Committee to consider reinstating the IBA after excluding it from organizing bouts at the Tokyo Olympics over integrity issues and threatening to drop the sport from future Summer Games.
On Tuesday, a Court of Arbitration for Sport judge said Dutch candidate Boris van der Vorst should not have been removed from the ballot for just a minor breach of campaigning rules.
The court did not order a rerun of the contest Kremlev won by acclamation on May 14, but now the Russian official says “let us have a new election.”
“In boxing, we should never be afraid of competition,” Kremlev said in a statement. “I have written to the board of directors today recommending that new elections be held.”
The IBA board meets on June 24 in Lausanne to decide how to act on the CAS ruling.
Kremlev won two presidential elections in the past 18 months, though neither has fully satisfied the IOC, which has also aired doubts about IBA’s finances and integrity of bouts at championships, including at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
Kremlev appointed investigators to examine allegations about the Rio tournaments and a full report is due to be published on Monday.