The World Rugby chairman, who is bidding for a second term in the contest whose outcome is set to be announced next month, tweeted: "No casting vote in the chairman election, only if there had been an EXCO vote."

His intervention comes some days after rugby union's governing body told insidethegames via email that the chairman did have the casting vote in the event of a tie.

In response to the question "the bye-laws seem to say that the chairman has the casting vote. I assume this isn't the case in an election where he's one of the candidates, but could you please just confirm that?", World Rugby replied: "There are 51 votes and a simple majority is required.

"The chairman does not vote, but he does have the casting vote in the event of a tie.

"Other candidates can vote."

Confusion arises from the extensive bye-law 9, headlined "The Council".

Section 9.8.1, covering election of the chair and vice-chair, includes the statement that "to be elected a candidate must achieve a simple majority of the votes allocated to the representatives present and entitled to vote pursuant to bye-law 9.4 above".

Bye-law 9.4 (e) states simply: "The chair shall have a casting vote".

Bye-law 9.8.1 ( c ) (vi) states, however, that "in the event of a tied vote, the chair shall have the power to order a recess prior to a further round of voting".

And bye-law 9.8.1 (d) says that "where the incumbent chair and vice-chair are both standing for re-election [Pichot has been vice-chairman under Beaumont's chairmanship] an independent vote chair shall be appointed by the Executive Committee to manage the voting process".

All votes in the election, which is being handled by PricewaterhouseCoopers, must be in by Thursday (April 30), but the results will not be announced until a World Rugby annual meeting which will take place online on May 12.

Beaumont is generally seen as narrow favourite, but Pichot appears to have struck a chord with his call for a "global realignment of our game".