There are 13 IOC members who originate from countries vying for the Games - four from Canada, three from France, three from China, two from Japan and one from Turkey. They will be barred from voting while their country is still in the running. Delegate Wu Ching-kuo, from Taipei, however, is free to vote whether or not Beijing remains a contender.
The process of selecting a host city will likely require several rounds of secret electronic voting, as IOC rules stipulate that the winner must eventually have more than 50 per cent of the delegates' votes. As it is unlikely that any of the candidate cities will win a 50 per cent majority initially, a process of elimination will ultimately decide the winner. After each round, the city with the fewest votes will be excluded.
IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch will select the winner in the event of a tie. Beginning at 9.30am (1.30pm HK time) on Friday, a representative from each city will be given 45 minutes to convince the delegates why they should be chosen, followed by 15 minutes of questions. At 5.15pm, the head of the IOC evaluation committee, Hein Verbruggen, will provide a summary of the inspection team's assessment of the five cities' technical merits, and voting will begin at 6pm.
