The 2024 FIDE General Assembly is taking place on 21-22 September, 2024 in Budapest, Hungary.
Among important items on the Agenda will be voting on Kyrgyz/Russian proposal to lift sanctions against Russian and Belarusian players, and elections for FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission, Constitutional Commission, and Verification Commission. Chess Topics LIVE BLOG with decisions from the FIDE General Assembly can be followed below the video or through our Twitter/X account.
FIDE General Assembly – live broadcast (Decisions and Blog below the video)
21:45: Yolander Persaud is elected chair of the FIDE Ethics Commission by 86 votes against 75 for a pro Russian Daniel Florea.
ECU Secretary General Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou commented on the results: Yolander Persaud became a role model for inclusion and equality in chess
20:25: After 1.5h, the voting is over. Scrutineers will now count the votes! More than 35 federations didn’t vote and the delegates have been dismissed. The General Assembly will continue tomorrow morning with Elections for members of the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission. The results of the voting will be published on the FIDE website.
20:20: Second call for federations that didn’t vote. More than 35 federations didn’t vote on the first call.
19:35: Secret voting is taking a lot of time. Delegates are resting on the floor. ECU Secretary General, Theodoros Tsorbatzoglou, predicts that today’s session will be finished around midnight.
18:57: “I got the impression that tomorrow morning we will not be so many people. To ensure sufficient number of voters, we could try today to organise the voting for Chair of the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission, and members of Constitutional and Verification Commission. Tomorrow morning to have only the voting for members of Ethics and Disciplinary Commission.”, suggests Rivello. The suggestion was accepted by delegates without objections.
18:52: The second round of Elections for Chairman of the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission is about to start. The choice will be made between Daniel Florea and Yolander Persaud.
18:40: Elections for members of the FIDE Verification Commission, Ethics and Disciplinary Commission and Constitutional Commission cannot start before the Elections for Chairman of the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission finish. Rivello explains that Daniel Florea and Yolander Persuad can still be voted as members of the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission if they are not elected as Chairman.
18:30: Elections for Chairman of the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission:
165 votes
163 valid, 1 abstention, 1 invalid. The results are:
Daniel Florea – 59 votes
Yolander Persaud – 77 votes
Babur Tolbaev – 27 votes
But an absolute majority is needed and there will be a second round of voting between Persaud and Florea
18:15: Candidates for the Constitutional Commission are giving short presentations.
17:55: The results are still not in. Currently, the candidates for the Verification Commission are giving short presentations.
17:30: The voting has concluded. Waiting on scrutineers to count the votes.
Almost two dozen federations did not vote. “Where are they”, asks Rivello. Bosnian and Bulgarian delegates are playing in round 10 of the Olympiad.
16:53: Alojzije Jankovic, delegate of the Croatian Chess Federation and ECU Vice President asks if SIM Cards in the pocket are allowed at the voting, referring to Fair Play case when the SIM card was found after the 3rd round of Chess Olympiad.
16:46: If no Candidate receives needed majority, there will be second round of voting. The Chairman of the FIDE Constitutional Commission will check in FIDE rules if third candidate will get removed for the second round of voting after the first round finishes and in case that the second round is needed.
16:42: Delegates to be checked if they have mobile phones when they go voting for the Chairman of the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission, explains Chairman Rivello. “If delegates want to abstain from voting, they can put a blank ballot”, he adds.
16:39: Elections are starting. Roberto Rivello calls the Delegates to come back to the venue.
16:30: Video broadcast from the FIDE General Assembly will continue when the delegates put their votes into ballots. 170 delegates are eligible to vote, and the process can take some time.
16:20: “Voting will start soon. Ballots are prepared, everything is prepared. Mobile phones are not allowed“, says Chairman of the FIDE Constitutional Commission Roberto Rivello.
16:10: Manual voting process is still being prepared. The President of the English Chess Federation and ECU Vice President Malcolm Pein says the delegates who photographed their electronic vote won’t be able to take their phones to voting area.
15:30: Records show that Yolander Persuad received most votes from the first annulled voting. Persuad received 110 votes, Florea 64, Tolbaev 40.
15:15: The scrutineer Paris Klerides says there are 220 votes posted. This is much more than the delegate count. Chairman Rivello says due to technical issues the voting will be annulled and completed in the traditional manner. There will be a 40 minutes break to prepare the voting.
15:05: Croatian delegate Alojzije Jankovic says this cannot be called a secret voting. He noted that FIDE staff Willy Iclicki goes around and takes the photos of delegates voting.
Chairman Rivello says this is a violation of the process. #FIDEGA
14:55: Delegates (Germany, England, ECU President, Greece) want to ask the questions to candidates for the Chairman of the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission. Chairman Rivello explains that the rules do not allow for questions before the voting. The issue that bothers the delegates is that the candidates CVs were received less than 24 hours ago. In addition, there are issues with the electronic voting devices.
14:45: Chairman of the Constitutional Commission Roberto Rivello is chairing the meeting through the upcoming election items.
Next item is voting for the chairperson of the Ethics Commission.
14:35: FIDE Deputy President Viswanathan Anand is chairing the afternoon session. President Dvorkovich has left to attend another ceremony. Abu Dhabi is making its presentation about the 2028 Chess Olympiad.
Abu Dhabi representative promised that ALL teams will receive visas. Delegate of Scotland asked for accommodation assurances. Delegate of Jamaica asked for travel subsidy for federations from Americas and Africa.
12:51: The elections for FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission will take place after the lunch break. The session starts at 14:30.
12:50: Allen Priest elected the Chairman of FIDE Verification Commission & Roberto Rivello elected the Chairman of FIDE Constitutional Commission
12:45: ECU President Zurab Azmaiparashvili asks Kyrgyz Chess Federation President is he serious about proposal which he made about Russia.
12:42: Jalling Hakan the President of the Swedish Chess Federation addresses the delegates: “The Members of the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Committee should be independent and with large integrity. Remember these words: INDEPENDENT and INTEGRITY”
12:38: Babur Tolbaev, the President of the Kyrgyz Chess Federation and a candidate for Chairman of the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission addresses the delegates: “When I was nominated for this position, the first thing I did – I printed all these codes, Ethic Codes, dozens of pages, and I studied them“
12:25 – FIDE General Assembly approves all items from Agenda’s section 2 – Financial matters