I noted, in passing, yesterday that there was a decent sized and quite varied field for the six vacancies as Vice Presidents of the ALDE Party.

And perhaps I need to go into more detail… so here is your guide to the “runners and riders”.

First, there is a notional election for the position of President, and I say notional because Hans van Baalen, from VVD (Netherlands), is unopposed in his quest for a third and final term in the role. He could lose, theoretically, but won’t.

Let’s start from the top of the picture, with our own Sal Brinton. We all know Sal as a doer of things rather than someone who just holds post. The ALDE Party will, if she is elected, get someone engaged in the day to day running of the Party.

Annelou van Egmond (D’66, Netherlands) completed her first term as Vice President. She describes her ambition as “winning elections” and is, by all accounts, very good at that.

Daniel Berg is a relative newcomer, and his party, Momentum (Hungary) have recently achieved some success in Hungarian local elections. He’s young, strong on opposing the authoritarian right, and wants to see greater synergy between the ALDE Party and the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament.

Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fáil, Ireland) is running for a third and final term. He’s been a good friend of the Liberal Democrats over the years, and his campaign team are very effective. There are t-shirts…

Ilhan Kyuchyuk (MRF, Bulgaria) is in some ways the most intriguing candidate, albeit a familiar one. Again, running for a third term, he’s an assiduous campaigner and very likeable, and as the only Muslim candidate he represents a new strand in European politics.

Boris Blažeković (HNS, Croatia) is one of my former colleagues on the ALDE Party Financial Advisory Committee. I now learn from his manifesto that he was an international fashion model amongst other things.

Alexander Graf Lambsdorff (FDP, Germany) is a recycled candidate, having served as a Vice President from 2011-2015. He’s a former MEP and now a member of the Bundestag, ambitious and effective. Read his Wikipedia entry…

Radu Mihail is from one of the newest members of the European Liberal family, the Union to Save Romania. A Romanian and French citizen, he was representative of the Romanian diaspora and a former Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Romanian Senate.

Last, but not least, Tetiana Terekhova is looking to make history as the first representative of a non-EU member party to serve as an ALDE Party Vice President. Her strap line is “True values are not on paper”, and as a member of the European Party of Ukraine, she is keen to act as a bridge to the ALDE members beyond the European Union.

Voting starts today, and delegates can vote for up to six candidates using a first part the post system, an anomaly which probably ought to be reformed sooner rather than later, especially now that voting is electronic. Maybe next year?…

The results will be announced tomorrow at lunchtime, and I’ll be sure to report them back to you…

* Mark Valladares is one of the two Returning Officers at this year’s ALDE Party Congress.