Buenos Aires, Argentina – On Tuesday the International Olympic Committee (IOC) will make its third of three key decisions at their 125th Session in Buenos Aires. Leaving the most crucial decision for last, members will elect their next President, a successor to Dr. Jacques Rogge who has completed his term limit of 12 years.
Rogge himself will announce the name of the new President at approximately 12:30pm local time in Argentina. In the running are Thomas Bach of Germany, Sergey Bubka of the Ukraine, Richard Carrion of Puerto Rico, Ser Miang Ng of Singapore, Denis Oswald, Switzerland, and Ching-Kuo Wu of Chinese Taipei.
The elected candidate will win an 8-year term as president with a potential 4-year extension should members agree by vote at the time.
The winner will need a simple majority to win the vote – if no majority is achieved on a single ballot, the candidate with the least number of votes will be eliminated and a further ballot will be held.
Of 103 IOC Members, two have been reported absent from the session. As President, Rogge will not vote. Neither will the six candidates and four members who belong to the same National Olympic Committee as a candidate (one from Germany, one from Ukraine and two from Switzerland). That leaves 90 possible first round votes and 46 needed for a majority.
Often considered the most powerful person in international sport, the IOC President will play a large role in shaping the Olympic movement by creating a vision, helping develop sport around the world and fighting obstacles such as doping, illegal betting and match fixing.
