World Sailing said KPMG, considered one of the "big four" accounting organisations in the world, would act as the independent scrutineer in the election.

Incumbent President Kim Andersen is facing three challengers in his bid to be re-elected to the helm of the worldwide body.

World Sailing vice-presidents Quanhai Li and Scott Perry, and Spanish veteran Gerardo Seeliger are the other three candidates in contention.

The result of the election is scheduled to be announced on November 1 at the General Assembly, which will be held as a virtual meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The first round of voting for both the President and vice-president elections is due to take place from October 9 to 16. 

In the event that no Presidential candidate receives more than 50 per cent of the votes in the first round, two further rounds are scheduled for October 20 to 23 and October 26 to 29 to conduct run-off votes before the winner is officially announced at the start of November.

If there is a tie between any vice-presidential candidates, a run-off vote is scheduled to begin on November 1 and finish on November 4.

World Sailing has enlisted the services of video conferencing platform BlueJeans to help conduct virtual meetings that are due to be held as part of the Annual General Meeting and General Assembly.

All of World Sailing's committees are set to hold meetings from October 15 to November 1.

Submissions from members will also be considered during the committee meetings on topics including ethics, governance and Para sailing.

A call for World Sailing to appoint a treasurer and to list suspended members on its website are among the submissions sent to the organisation prior to the busy schedule of meetings.