Today being the second day of the XIX WFD General Assembly is often seen by many to be the most exciting day. This is due mostly in part to the elections that took place in voting in the next iteration of WFD Board, including the executive Board positions such as the President.

In accordance with the WFD Statutes, each Ordinary Member, a National Association of the Deaf whose membership fees were paid and thus able to vote, were issued voting cards of green, red and white. One vote allocated for each OM. This was applicable for all voting matters throughout the agenda of the WFD General Assembly, including the election of WFD Board members.

The voting for the Board took place at late evening.

Candidates for nomination were as follows:

WFD President:
– Mr Colin Allen, Deaf Australia

WFD Vice President:
– Dr Terry RILEY, OBE, British Deaf Association
– Dr Joseph MURRAY, National Association of the Deaf (USA)

WFD Board Member:
– Mr Florjan ROJBA, Albanian National Association of the Deaf
– Ms Ana Regina Souza CAMPELLO, National Federation of Education and Integration of Deaf People of Brazil
– Mr Kasper BERGMANN, Danish Deaf Association
– Ms Kaisa ALANNE, Finnish Association of the Deaf
– Ms Jigjid DULAMSUREN, Mongolian National Association of the Deaf
– Ms Hanne BERGE KVITVAER, Norwegian Association of the Deaf
– Mr Nikolay CHAUSHYAN, All-Russian Society of the Deaf
– Mr Rwaka PARFAIT, Rwanda National Union of the Deaf
– Dr Terry RILEY, OBE, British Deaf Association

The official results after having four independent scrutinisers tally the results are as follows:

Results for the new WFD Board members:

President: Colin Allen

Vice President: Dr Joseph Murray

Board Members:
Mr Florjan Rojba
Ms Ana Regina Souza Campello
Mr Kasper Bergmann
Ms Kaisa Alanne
Ms Jigjid Dulamsuren
Ms Hanne Berge Kvitvaer
Mr Nikolay Chaushyan
Dr Terry Riley OBE

The WFD is very pleased with the results and is looking forward to work with the new elected members of the WFD Board for the next four year term.

Another significant and highly anticipated vote took place today, this time regarding the host city of the next WFD Congress. The nominations were:

Hong Kong (HONG KONG)
Paris (FRANCE)

After both prospective hosts presented their bids to all delegates, the Ordinary Members voted. In a ‘very tight finish 38 to 35, Paris, France have won the rights to host the next WFD Congress in 2019.

We would like to congratulate the organisers who prepared a strong bid for the 2019 WFD Congress to vote on. WFD looks forward to working with France for the next World Congress of the WFD in 2019.

But that was not all. The WFD and the Turkish National Federation of the Deaf then hosted a fabulous reception on a cruise boat. This was for the WFD Ordinary Members to share our appreciation for those WFD Board Members’ who stepped down or are no longer remaining on the Board for the next mandate. We thank those individuals for their industry over the past four years.

The General Assembly will be extended to tomorrow morning.