The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is the undisputed master of tightly controlling its presidential elections, with veteran Olympic observers likening the process to a papal conclave.
Some of the seven candidates vying for the presidency on Thursday have expressed frustration over limited access to their fellow International Olympic Committee members during the five-month campaign.
Voters, too, will receive minimal updates between rounds of secret ballots on election day.
“It has been difficult to engage,” leading contender Sebastian Coe said last week before heading to Greece. “In the future, this process needs to be more open and expansive. The membership deserves that.”
The IOC's members are as unique and unpredictable as the election rules that govern them.
Among the 109 eligible voters in the IOC’s invited and exclusive club are royal family members, including the Emir of Qatar, former lawmakers and diplomats, business leaders including billionaires, present and past Olympic athletes, and Oscar-winning actress Michelle Yeoh.
Only IOC members can stand as candidates and a long-standing perception has been that outgoing president Thomas Bach has promoted a protege he hopes will win – even if playing a favorite seems to breach the political neutrality the Olympic movement holds dear.
Bach declined to comment in detail on Monday when asked if he intervened with voters on behalf of Kirsty Coventry, the two-time swimming gold medalist from Zimbabwe. She would be the first woman and first African president in the IOC’s 131-year history.
"What I felt obliged to say about the profile of my successor I have said in Paris," Bach said, whose hands-on executive presidency ends formally in June after his 12-year, term-limited tenure.
Seven months ago at the Paris Olympics, Bach said, "New times are calling for new leaders,” citing the need for a successor immersed in a "technological tsunami” of the digital world.
"I have nothing to add to this,” he said on Monday. He spoke at a news conference after chairing a meeting of his executive board, which includes three of the seven candidates, including Coventry.
Coventry is the only woman in the race and just the second-ever female candidate to lead the IOC. A win on Thursday for the sports minister of Zimbabwe would add to Bach’s legacy of gender equality policies.
"I don’t feel that he is out campaigning for me,” she told reporters in an online call in January, adding she "has had a good relationship with President Bach since 2013.”
IOC election rules barred candidates from publishing campaign videos, organizing public meetings, or taking part in public debates. Voters could not publicly endorse their pick.
Candidates were allowed to write a manifesto the IOC published on the same day in December, then make just one official presentation to their voters at Olympic headquarters in January. Voters could not ask any questions after each 15-minute presentation, which was not broadcast.
"If I were the president, I think I’d be a little more flexible,” Prince Feisal al Hussein of Jordan said that day in Lausanne, Switzerland.
The seven candidates have no official media event before Thursday’s vote, though all will go on Tuesday to nearby Ancient Olympia. A formal ceremony there with a Bach speech opens an election gathering that runs through Friday.
The IOC will cut the online stream of its meeting at a resort hotel when the election process starts on Thursday at about 4 p.m. in Greece (1400 GMT). Members will have their phones and tablets collected and stored.
Most IOC staff must leave the room, so only voters and essential election monitors will stay. When a winner emerges, the doors will open, the streamed broadcast will be turned back on, and the announcement will be made.
About 100 members should be present and eligible in the first round to cast electronic votes. Candidates can vote, but any compatriot is excluded for as long as they stay in the contest.
One of the expected strong contenders, IOC vice president Juan Antonio Samaranch, can vote for himself, but his fellow Spaniard Pau Gasol, the two-time NBA champion, cannot.
"Members should vote for what they believe is best for the Olympic movement," Samaranch said on Monday in a statement. "It is not about personalities or friendships. And it is definitely not about identity politics.”
The winner must get an absolute majority, which is unlikely to happen in the first round. Several rounds could be needed. Until there is a winner, the candidate with the fewest votes will be eliminated. If there is a tie for the lowest total, a runoff vote between them will decide who is eliminated.
However, voters will not be told the totals for each candidate after each round. Instead, Bach "will announce only the name of the candidate who will not participate in the following round of voting,” the IOC rules state.
Bach "will not exercise his right to vote, but he reserves his right to exercise a casting vote.”
The next IOC president – just the 10th ever – will take office on Olympic Day, June 23, at a ceremony in Lausanne.
