Fifa Vote Goes To Second Round

Source: thewillnigeria.com

Voting in the FIFA presidential election will go to a second round after no candidate received the two-thirds majority required for victory.

Gianni Infantino received 88 votes in the first round, Sheikh Salman 85, Prince Ali 27 and Jerome Champagne seven.

A total of 159 votes was required for an outright win in the first round of voting but that target was not reached and there will now be a second round, for the first time at a FIFA presidential election since 1974.

The 207 FIFA members are being polled in Zurich to find a successor to Sepp Blatter, who had been in the post since 1998, but resigned last year under pressure amid escalating corruption scandals.

Blatter was re-elected for a fifth term in May 2015 but has since been banned for six years for financial mismanagement.

South African candidate Tokyo Sexwale used his 15-minute pre-election speech to officially withdraw from the race, leaving just four candidates on the ballot.

The results were closer than expected and left Infantino requiring 16 more votes to become the second successive Swiss president after Blatter.

The successful candidate will serve the remaining term of office for which Blatter was elected last May, meaning there will be a further election in 2019.

Alliances could determine the result of the election. The candidate with the lowest number of votes drops out after the second and subsequent rounds, meaning there can be a maximum of four rounds.

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