Four Candidates Lead Cardano Constitutional Committee Election Ahead of Final Audit

The results remain subject to audit, which Intersect expects to complete by July 27. The four seats carry two-year terms, and the formal on-chain Update Committee governance action is planned during Epoch 646, beginning July 28.

DiSarro and Leandros Lead the Preliminary Results

DRep voting closed on July 23 at 21:45 UTC after registered DReps were able to select up to four candidates from a field of ten. Each selected candidate received the DRep’s full delegated voting power.

Intersect’s preliminary results place Philip DiSarro first with 2.0 billion ada in voting power from 24 DReps. Leandros BSP follows with 2.0 billion ada from 23 DReps, while Marek Mahut of deliberative.cc ranks third with 1.4 billion ada from 28 DReps. Cardano Curia occupies the fourth qualifying position with 1.3 billion ada from 27 DReps.

Asia Africa Cardano Coalition is fifth with 1.1 billion ada, followed by Bosco Ribeiro with 197.2 million ada and Gbiri Oluwaseun with 120.8 million ada. NexTrium Global Innovations Ltd, Ian Njuguna and Meek Owen complete the preliminary ranking.

Of the four candidates publicly backed by the Cardano Foundation before voting closed, Marek Mahut and Cardano Curia currently sit inside the preliminary top four. The ranking is not yet the final election result, and Intersect has said the tally must first pass the scheduled audit before the process advances on-chain.

Four Constitutional Committee Seats Carry Two-Year Terms

The election is filling four of the seven seats on Cardano’s Constitutional Committee. The seats currently held by Cardano Curia, Phil_uplc, KtorZ and Cardano Japan Council are part of the 2026 cycle, while the remaining three members continue under existing terms, preserving a staggered committee structure.

Intersect states that the four candidates selected through this election will serve as Cardano’s constitutional guardians for the next two years. Cardano Curia is therefore seeking to retain a seat, while the other current holders whose terms expire would leave the Committee unless they successfully stood for election.

The Constitutional Committee is responsible for reviewing applicable governance actions against the Cardano Constitution. Each member holds one vote, unlike the stake-weighted voting used by DReps and SPOs. The Constitution defines the CC as the governing body responsible for ensuring that applicable governance actions take effect on Cardano only when they align with the Constitution.

That role places the Committee within the governance path for actions including Treasury withdrawals, hard fork initiations and parameter updates. Its responsibility is constitutional review rather than deciding whether a proposal is commercially attractive, politically desirable or strategically preferable.

The Committee is also restricted from voting on governance actions that directly concern its own status, specifically No Confidence and Update Committee actions. The incoming membership therefore does not approve the governance action that installs it.

Audit Comes Before the On-Chain Committee Update

The preliminary ranking completes the DRep voting stage, but not the full election process. Intersect expects audited results by July 27 and plans to submit the resulting Update Committee governance action during Epoch 646, which begins July 28.

That distinction is particularly relevant because the Update Committee action is the mechanism used to formally change the Constitutional Committee on-chain. Until the audit is completed and that governance action is submitted and processed, DiSarro, Leandros, Mahut and Cardano Curia remain the four candidates positioned to advance rather than newly seated members.

The audit now separates the off-chain election result from the on-chain governance update. If the preliminary ranking survives that review unchanged, the next stage will move four two-year appointments from the Ekklesia voting process into Cardano’s governance ledger, completing the 2026 rotation of nearly half of the Constitutional Committee.