Rules of Procedure of the Assembly (December 2025)

16.1. After the election of the President, the election of the nineteen Vice-Presidents shall, where appropriate, take place.

16.2. One Vice-President shall be elected in respect of each national delegation entitled to a seat under the system of apportionment of Bureau seats referred to in Rule 14.3.. Where no candidature is proposed by a national delegation entitled to a seat, that seat shall remain vacant until such a candidature is proposed.

16.3. No representative or substitute may be elected Vice-President unless proposed in writing by the chairperson of the national delegation concerned, on behalf of that delegation while taking into account the principle of gender equality. For every three successive Vice-Presidents proposed by a national delegation, at least one must be a woman and one must be a man.

16.4. The candidates proposed by the national delegations shall be declared elected without a ballot. However, a vote shall be held by secret ballot in respect of one or several candidates in accordance with Rules 40.11 and 41.b, if so requested in the Chamber, at the moment when the candidatures are presented, by at least twenty representatives or substitutes. Where a candidate is not elected after the second ballot, that seat shall remain vacant until a candidate presented by the national delegation in accordance with Rule 16.3. obtains the requisite majority.

16.5. The Vice-Presidents shall take precedence by age.

16.6. Vice-Presidents shall remain in office until the opening of the next ordinary session. A Vice-President shall be replaced in the course of the session when he or she is no longer a member of the Assembly, in the event of death, resignation or dismissal pursuant to Rule 55, or when the delegation to which they belong is renewed. A new Vice-President shall be elected, in accordance with the above provisions, at the opening of a part-session. In the order of precedence, he or she shall come after the Vice-Presidents previously elected.