The Italian will retire at the end of this year having been at the helm of the worldwide governing body since his election at the 1996 Congress in Atlanta.

Grandi will be replaced by either European Union of Gymnastics President Georges Guelzec or Japan Gymnastics Association secretary general Morinari Watanabe, with the vote due to take place at the Congress here on Wednesday (October 19).

He presided over the Presidential Commission meeting today and will also head up the two-day gathering of the Executive Committee, which begins tomorrow.

The FIG Presidential Commission, comprised of Grandi, his three vice-presidents - Slava Corn of Canada, Russian Vasily Titov and Michel Leglise of France - and secretary general André Gueisbuhler, has the power to make urgent decisions as well as recommendations to the Executive Committee.

The meetings of the Commission are closed and details of what is discussed is not made public.

It has been agreed that media will be allowed to attend the opening speeches of the Congress on Tuesday (October 18), as well as the five-minute, last-ditch pleas for votes of the Presidential candidates the following day.

Press will also be able to listen to International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach address the Congress before the election, it has been decided.

Media are banned from the Congress but will be given the chance to hear the result and the acceptance speech of the eventual victor, who will become just the ninth FIG President since the organisation was founded in 1881.

Watanabe and Frenchman Guelzec, who will come face-to-face tomorrow during the Executive Committee meeting, both arrived here today.

insidethegames exclusively revealed the 57-year-old Japanese would stand for the Presidency last October, though Watanabe denied it at the time.

It came after Guelzec claimed he had been campaigning for a "year-and-a-half".

He then officially declared his intention to enter the race in April, while Guelzec confirmed his candidacy in January last year, three months after Grandi had revealed at the 2014 Congress in Tashkent that he would not seek another mandate.

Despite the stature of the organisation - the FIG sits in the top tier of Olympic sports along with athletics and swimming - the race has largely been played out in the background thus far and Watanabe remained coy when questioned about his chances by insidethegames.

"Anything can happen - it's an election," he said.