Former International Softball Federation (ISF) President Porter and International Baseball Federation (IBAF) chief Fraccari have been acting as co-Presidents of the WSBC since the IBAF and ISF had agreed to a merger in 2012.

A WBSC spokesman confirmed to insidethegames that American Porter and Italian Fraccari were the only two candidates nominated for the Presidency in this Tunisian seaside resort after they received the unanimous backing of the more than 200 national federations from baseball and softball.

"No-one else was nominated for the role and both Don and Riccardo have accepted the nomination and will run tomorrow," the spokesman said.

"I think what that shows is that the national federations have confidence in what both have done and they way they have led the World Baseball Softball Confederation in this interim period."

The spokesman went to claim that despite baseball and softball's unsuccessful bid to be reinstated onto the Olympic programme for the Tokyo 2020 Games - a bid led by Porter and Fraccari - their nominations prove that the baseball and softball world are right behind them.

Both sports lost out to wrestling when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) controversially voted to retain wrestling for Tokyo 2020 at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires last September.

Wrestling had been recommended for exclusion after Rio 2016 by the ruling Executive Board only to mount a strong challenge to retain its place.

Porter stepped down as President of the ISF last October following the decision and was replaced by Canada's Dale McMann.

The American had overseen softball's debut in the Olympics at Atlanta 1996 but it was controversially voted off again by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its 2005 Session in Singapore and was dropped after Beijing 2008 along with baseball which had made its Games debut at Barcelona 1992.

Fraccari has been President of the IBAF since 2009 when he was elected at the organisation's Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Along with the Presidential election here tomorrow, delegates are also set to elect a secretary general, treasurer and male and female member-at-large.

The WBSC Congress here in Hammemet runs until Sunday (May 11).

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