With a minimum of 99 from the 150 votes cast required for the proposal to pass, the change to the World Athletics Constitution was accepted by a margin of 14, with 113 in favour and 37 against.

Previously, the Constitution stated each country was allowed one representative on Council.

Alain Jean Pierre, President of the Haitian Amateur Athletic Federation and Edith Skippings, President of the Turks & Caicos Islands Amateur Athletic Association both made the point that the proposed change could result in one territory having an unfair voting advantage.

"This amendation would some countries advantage over others," Jean Pierre told the 53^rd Congress on the second and concluding day of its virtual staging.

"The universality we are looking for in athletics becomes a bit biased because we may not be in a situation where we can choose.

"Someone who is already a Council member may well be a second member on that Council from the same country. 

"If a country has two members on the Council votes would be biased in favour of that country."

Skippings commented: "Our stand on this question is the same as it was at the last Congress.

"We feel that a country with two votes would have an edge.

"And you could only need a single vote that would win something or pass something.

"We think this would be setting a bad precedent in years to come.

"So the Turks & Caicos will not be able to support this proposal."

But Keith Joseph, President of Team Athletics St Vincent and the Grenadines and general secretary of his country’s National Olympic Committee, supported the proposal, saying it was "only fair" that athletes should have the opportunity of full participation as Council members.

"They have a right as a grouping," he said.

"We keep saying that the athlete is the core of our business and we ought to give them the opportunity to meet as a group to determine issues that affect them and to have appropriate representation.

"They are not there to represent the interests of any member federation - they are there as prime stakeholders, they are the reason we exist."

Jean Gracia of France, European Athletics Vice President, pointed out that his organisation had already implemented such a proposal in 2019.

"The nationality of an athlete who is with the Commission might well be the same as some other Council member," Gracia said.

"This is the case today – we have a Council member of one nationality and the President of the Athletes Commission is the same nationality and this has not created any problems at all.

"Because the President of the Commission does not represent the country where they were born, they represent the athletes they are representing."

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe noted that, in cases where voting involved an issue specifically relating to the country of origin of an Athlete Representative who might have a fellow countryman as a fellow Council officer, the World Athletics Integrity Code required that they would step back from voting.

"Our representative from Guyana has just made the observation that being elected to serve on the Council means leaving countries at the door and taking on an international position," Coe said.

"I think we would all accept that is the position we all adopt when we serve on Councils."

In November 2019, New Zealand’s double Olympic shot put champion Valerie Adams and France’s 2012 Olympic pole vault champion and former world record holder Renaud Lavillenie became the first active athletes to join the World Athletics Council.

This followed governance reforms introduced in 2016, which were amended in 2019 so the chair and one other member of the Athletes' Commission – one male and one female – should become full voting members.

There was no potential doubling up, however, as none of the existing Council members were from France or New Zealand.