Jean Todt has become the new president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA) following the Friday elections in Paris. According to the reporters present in the French capital, Max Mosley's favorite candidate for the job received the votes of 135 member clubs of the FIA, while Ari Vatanen only got 49 votes.
The Frenchman was considered favorite to win the elections from the early hours of the morning, as several media reports in the UK hinted he holds a comfortable winning margin over his Finn counter-candidate. While the reports suggested that Todt would win by a 140 to 108 score, less members appeared to have voted on election day.
A few hours before the election process took place, The Independent published an interview with triple Formula One champion Jackie Stewart, in which the legendary champion revealed several members of the FIA received threats from FIA president Max Mosley in order to cast their votes to Todt.
Mosley was the first man to publicly lobby for the the former Ferrari-an after announcing his intention to stand down from the presidential seat, urging the other member clubs to do the same. Although Ari Vatanen benefited from the support of the majority of the teams and drivers in F1, as well as almost 90 percent of the fans, he must now settle for his everyday life prior to the election campaign.
There were 12 abstentions or invalid votes. The entire voting procedure was supervised by an external Huissier de Justice, the French state-appointed public witness.
Update: Official confirmation from the FIA, via a press release
"Jean Todt has been elected President of the FIA for a four-year term by the FIA General Assembly at its annual meeting in Paris. Voting in the General Assembly was made by secret ballot. The votes were counted in private by the FIA legal department, under the supervision of scrutineers proposed by the two presidential candidates and designated by the General Assembly."
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