David Chiu has been re-elected president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

GUARDIAN FILE PHOTO BY KEENEY AND LAW

Note: Follow @sfbg on Twitter for live updates on the vote for Board of Supervisors presidency.

UPDATE, 1:19 p.m. Sups. Malia Cohen and Jane Kim withdraw their nominations prior to voting; Sup. David Chiu is unanimously re-elected President of the Board.

Few people were willing to confidently make predictions about today's vote for the Board of Supervisors presidency going in, and even now, with three nominations in, it's tough to predict how it will turn out.

The nominations opened with Sup. Norman Yee nominating David Chiu for an unprecedented third term in the job, praising the leadership and spirit of cooperation that he's brought to the job and saying, "I want to see this continue."

Sup. Jane Kim spoke next, nominating Sup. Malia Cohen and saying, "It's been 13 years since we've been able to nominate a woman for this position." Kim also said Cohen has "demonstrated a lot of leadership over these last two years," and she singled out the importance of her representing Bayview-Hunters Point, "a district that we talk a lot of about."

Cohen returned the gesture by nominating Kim for the presidency, calling her "a tenacious, strong, vibrant woman of color." The last woman to serve as board president was Barbara Kaufman in 1997-99.

Wiener spoke next and thanked his supporters who urged him to seek this leadership post and said, "Upon serious reflection, I will not seeking the board presidency and I ask not to be nominated, but I would like to second the nomination of David Chiu."

Sup. John Avalos then seconded the nomination of Kim, followed by Sup. David Campos, who seconded the nomination of Cohen, effectively dividing the progressive bloc between the two women of color who had nominated one another.

"There's a certain symbolism about having a woman of color in that position," Campos said of Cohen.