Douglas Brose of Brazil and Antonio Diaz of Venezuela are bidding for re-election after their terms came to an end but they face competition from seven other karateka for the roles.

Egypt's Feryal Abdelaziz, Kazakhstan's Sofyz Berultseva, Hong Kong's Grace Lau, Serbia's Stefan Joksic, Uzbekistan's Dastonbek Otabolaev, Azerbaijan's Irina Irina Zaretska and Switzerland's Elena Quirici are seeking to take the place of Brose and Dias on the Athletes' Commission.

Voting opened today and is due to close on Thursday (October 26) before the results are expected to be announced on Friday (October 27).

The election is being held alongside the Karate World Championships, which started today and is set to run until Sunday (October 30) in Budapest.

Brose is a three-time world champion in the men's under-60 kilogram category and a Pan American Games gold medallist.

Diaz has claimed two men's individual kata titles at the World Championships, the World Games and the Pan American Games.

Abdelaziz claimed Olympic gold in the women's over-61kg category at Tokyo 2020 where katate made its debut and has a world team kumite title to her name.

Berultseva won women's over-61kg bronze at the Olympics and has won titles at the World Games and Asian Games as well as a world bronze.

Lau is another Olympic medallist, earning bronze in women's indivdual kata and has also achieved that colour medal twice at both the World Championships and Asian Games,

Joksic is a three-time European medallist, while Otabolaev secured world gold in the men's under-75kg category two years ago.

Zaretska earned world and European bronze medals for Ukraine before switching to Azerbaijan who she represented when she claimed Olympic silver in the women's over-61kg division.

She is also a double world and European Games in the women's over-68kg class.

Quirici, a world bronze medallist and triple European champion in the women's over-68kg division, is also in contention for a place on the WKF Athletes' Commission.