While the election of a new President to replace 82-year-old Italian Bruno Grandi for the first time in 20 years is the standout item on the agenda, other important decisions are likely to be made over the course of the next three days.

The battle between European Union of Gymnastics President Georges Guelzec and Japan Gymnastics Association secretary general Morinari Watanabe is just one of a number of votes the members will be asked to cast on Wednesday (October 19).

Vasily Titov, President of the Russian Gymnastics Federation, is the only incumbent hoping for to earn re-election as a vice-president.

The Russian will go up against six other candidates for three vice-presidential spots, which also carry an automatic place on the Presidential Commission.

Belarus' five-time Olympic champion Nellie Kim, China's Luo Chaoyi, Germany’s Wolfgang William, Sweden's Margaret Sikkens-Ahlquist, Venezuela's Zobeira Hernandez and Australia's George Tatai are also standing.

Two vice-presidents - Slava Corn of Canada and Michel Léglise of France - are stepping down and not seeking re-election.

The Frenchman had been stripped of his duties as both vice-president and a member of the FIG Presidential Commission until the end of August 2016 back in 2014 after a Disciplinary Commission ruled he had committed "supervisory negligence" at an Intercontinental Judges' Course he ran in Bucharest in Romania in 2012.

He successfully appealed, however, and returned to his role in February of last year.

The FIG leadership is likely to undergo significant change at the Congress here as 20 officials are vying for seven spots on the Executive Committee, where they would join the President, secretary general, the vice-presidents, those who head up the various Technical Committees and the Presidents of the four Continental Unions.

Statute changes could be made, however, which may prompt a re-think of how elections are carried out at future Congress meetings.

The raft of elections such as the ones due to take place here only occur once every four years.

Those who are successful with their respective bids will therefore retain their positions until just after the conclusion of the 2020 Olympic Games in the Japanese capital. 

Other items on the agenda include bringing the FIG’s statutes in line with the good governance requirements as part of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Agenda 2020 reform process, billed as the strategic roadmap for the future of the Olympic Movement.

FIG secretary general André Gueisbuhler told insidethegames the governing body, which sits in the top tier of Olympic sports along with athletics and swimming and has appeared at every Games since the inaugural event in 1896, will also look to address various conflicts of interest within the sport.

Six new Federations are set to join the FIG, and insidethegames understands three of these will be Fiji, American Samoa and the Cook Islands.

The approval of the accounts for the 2014 and 2015 fiscal years, as well as the quadrennial budget for the new Olympic cycle, is also on the programme, along with reports from the four Presidents of the Continental Unions – the Pan American Gymnastics Union, the UEG, the Asian Gymnastics Union and the African Union of Gymnastics.

IOC President Thomas Bach is due to address the Congress before the elections.