@ALDEParty Congress - the Vice-Presidential Race

I was going to write this for Liberal Democrat Voice but, to be honest, given what's going on over there, it hardly seems worth bothering. At least here, anyone who is interested can pick it up...

A week ago, I wrote for Liberal Democrat Voice about the contest to replace Sir Graham Watson as President of the ALDE (Alliance of Liberal and Democrats in Europe) Party. I had meant to follow that up with a piece about the race to fill five, possible six, Vice-Presidential slots, but you know how things go, you get distracted, or busy, or both. However, time now permits, so here goes...

It has, in past years, been unusual to have big fields for ALDE elections, but this year is different, with ten candidates for the five places currently available, and they're an intriguing collection.

Raoul Boucke is the D'66 (Netherlands) candidate, as Lousewies van der Laan is term-limited (ALDE Vice Presidents are permitted three consecutive terms). He's the Chair of his Party's Belgium & Luxembourg branch, and was fifth on the Party's list for the 2014 European Parliamentary election.

Timmy Dooley, from Fianna Fail (Ireland), ran for a Vice-Presidential vacancy in 2014, losing out to Angelika Mlinar (NEOS, Austria) and Hans van Baalen (VVD, Netherlands) in an unexpectedly tight three-cornered contest. He sat in the Irish Senate from 2002 to 2007, and has represented Clare in the Irish Parliament since then. He is currently his party's spokesperson on European Affairs.

Fredrick Federley is one of the Centerpartiet (Sweden) MEPs, taking up his seat last year. He had, previously, served eight years as a member of the Swedish Parliament, and is now Second Vice Chairman of his Party. He may be the only candidate to have an acknowledged drag persona, and is closely linked to Siim Kallas's candidacy for President.

Antanas Guoga is possibly the most intriguing candidate ever to run for the ALDE Bureau. A Lithuanian-Australian businessman, he played the World Poker Tour with much success for a number of years, before getting involved in the Liberal Movement of Lithuania, for whom he now sits in the European Parliament. He is known as Tony G, and had a reputation as being a 'bad boy of poker'.

Mitja Horvat is the Chair of the International Committee of the Modern Centre Party of Slovenia, one of ALDE's newest member parties, and one of its MPs. An academic previously, he lectured in Administrative Law at the University of Ljubljana.

The first Bulgarian to run for the Bureau (to the best of my knowledge), Ilhan Kyuchyuk is a member of the European Parliament, representing the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. He's the youngest of the candidates, just thirty years old (which makes me feel rather elderly). If elected, he may well be the first Muslim Bureau member too.

With Alexander Graf Lambsdorff standing down after two terms, the FDP (Germany) are fielding a known quantity in Markus Löning. A Vice President of ALDE from 2005 to 2011 and the safest of pairs of hands, Markus is Chair of Liberal International's Human Rights Committee and was Germany's Commissioner for Human Rights between 2010 and 2014.

Marta Pascal Capdevila has been nominated by Convergencia (Catalonia). A member of the Catalan Parliament since 2013, she is her Party's spokesperson on the Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee.

The only member of the Bureau seeking re-election, Karin Riis-Jorgensen, from Venstre (Denmark), served three terms in the European Parliament from 1994 to 2009. Her husband is currently the Danish Ambassador in Rome, having formerly held the same position in London.

And finally, the Liberal Democrat, Ros Scott. Ros has served in the United Kingdom's House of Lords since 2000, holding a number of portfolios before, in 2008, she was elected by a vote of all Party members to become Party President, chairing the Federal Executive during the two year period when the Liberal Democrats entered the governing administration for the first time in peace time since 1929. Subsequently, she became a member of the European Union Select Committee in the Lords, and currently chairs its Energy and Environment sub-committee, which also includes agriculture and fisheries. She is also married to a member of ALDE's Financial Advisory Committee (that would be me...)

The voting system is a slightly unusual one, with voters having to cast as many votes as there are vacancies, with a first past the post basis determining the outcome. And, with the drama of a paper count now replaced by the (hopefully) quiet efficiency of a computerised voting system, the result should be known by 12.30 p.m., London time, on Saturday.