According to background information on the process seen by insidethegames, the independent vote chair of PricewaterhouseCoopers will "contact World Rugby Council members simultaneously after 3pm tomorrow to confirm the voting results."

The decision to bring the announcement forward from its scheduled date of May 12 was made following consultation with both candidates, Sir Bill Beaumont, a former England international and current World Rugby chairman, and Agustín Pichot, a former Argentina international and current vice-chairman, as well as independent legal advisors.

World Rugby also told insidethegames that "no election is necessary to appoint the vice-chairman and Executive Committee members" and that "nobody within World Rugby will know the announcement before this time, not even the candidates."

Ahead of the voting closing last night, the result was said to be "too close to call".

Some unions have already publicly declared which way they voted, with Asia and New Zealand both announcing they had backing Pichot, while Rugby Europe and the Welsh Rugby Union both announced that they had voted for Sir Bill.

Under the current voting system, 30 of the 51 votes are allocated to the 10 Tier 1 unions within the Six Nations and Rugby Championship tournaments.

Two votes go to each to the six regional associations, plus Japan gets two votes and there is one vote for each for the seven unions from Canada, the United States, Uruguay, Georgia, Romania, Samoa and Fiji.