Voting for stewards will begin on Tuesday, 20 December. Stewards, people who can grant and remove permissions, such as adminship, bureaucratship, or CheckUser, on any Wikimedia project, are considered one of the highest levels in the Wikimedia hierarchy. Stewards are regarded as trusted people who serve all Wikimedia projects, including Wikipedia, Wiktionary, and Wikisource, in all languages.

The election will run until 10 January, 2006. In order to be elected, a candidate must have garnered at least 30 support votes along with a minimum of 80 percent approval. In addition, the candidate must have been active on a Wikimedia project for at least three months and have a user page there. After the elections, the Wikimedia Board of Trustees will then select between one to ten of the candidates who have met the requirements to become stewards.

Voting will consist of both for and against votes. Though no official rules regarding the suffrage of voters have been announced, last year's election enfranchised anyone with a meta account and participation in a Wikimedia project with at least three months of participation.

As of press time, ten candidates had joined the race: Jean-Christophe Chazalette, Ausir, Romihaitza, Evilphoenix, Arno Lagrange, Walter, Traroth, Klemen Kocjancic, Paginazero, and Jredmond.