Choue, 61, defeated WTF vice president and International Olympic Committee member Nat Indrapana of Thailand.

 

He polled 104 votes to 45 in the election ahead of the World Taekwondo Championships, which open in Copenhagen tomorrow.

 

One person abstained.

 

Four candidates were originally running for the post to head the international governing body of the Korean martial art.

 

However, European Taekwondo Federation president Athanasios Pragalos and WTF vice president Park Soo-nam pulled out.

 

Pragalos has made allegations of vote buying but failed to make it clear who was attempting to buy votes.

 

Pragalos and Park openly backed Indrapana, with Park saying Indrapana as an IOC member could reconcile the WTF with the Olympic Movement amid growing fears the sport's future in the Games is under serious threat.

 

On top of the allegations, former WTC president Kim Un-yong of South Korea has been rumoured to behind a campaign to unseat Choue, who has been in office since 2004.

 

Anonymous faxes sent from South Korea have been circulating in recent weeks with negative information about Choue's leadership.

 

Taekwondo's inclusion in the Olympics has often been clouded in scandal, perhaps in part because Kim, the man who championed the sport's inclusion in the Games, is a former IOC vice-president who has spent time in prison on corruption charges.

 

The scandal led to him resigning from the IOC in May 2005.

 

 

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