Barelli, who also acts as the President of the Italian Swimming Federation, was elected to lead the body in 2012 and will be looking to earn another four-year spell.

Each of the 52 National Federations have two votes in the election, with a simple majority required for victory.

The Italian has run a low-key campaign and refused to answer questions on his plans when quizzed by insidethegames at the pre-Championships press conference here today. 

The 61-year-old Senator from Rome, a former Olympic swimmer who competed at Munich 1972 and Montreal 1976 and won a 4x100 metres freestyle relay bronze medal at the 1975 World Championships in Cali, has served as honorary secretary of the International Swimming Federation (FINA) since 2009.

Barelli faced fraud allegations in 2014 after claims a sum of $1 million (£720,000/€916,000) allocated to the national governing body to be spent on the pool used for the 2009 World Championships in Rome was unaccounted for.

He strongly denied the charges and no further action has ever been taken.

By contrast to Barelli, his rival Van Heijningen has unveiled a 100-day plan to "empower all European National Federations", centered around the three elements of "Progress, Empowerment and Partnerships".

Key ideas of his campaign, which is being aided by Lausanne-based TSE Consulting, include better promotion through social media and improved development programmes.

The LEN vice-president has also argued a more bottom-up than top-down approach is required, with all decisions to be based on "detailed analysis and discussions".

Van Heijningen, a leading lawyer who headed the FINA Doping Panel from 2009 to 2013, believes increasing out-of-competition testing is a priority, as well as ensuring less of a discrepancy between how often swimmers from certain countries are tested.

An information line which potential whistleblowers can use to come forward is another idea.