IAEA fails to elect ElBaradei’s successor
March 27th, 2009 - 3:24 am ICT by IANSVienna, March 27 (Xinhua) The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Thursday failed to elect a new chief after three rounds of voting.
Neither of the two candidates - Japan’s Yukiya Amano and South Africa’s Abdul Samad Minty - managed to win the two-thirds majority needed to become the next IAEA director-general and succeed Mohamed ElBaradei.
New rounds of voting were expected Friday.
Under the IAEA statutes, the agency’s Board of Governors appoint the chief with the approval of the general conference of member states. ElBaradei will complete his term in November and the board has to elect a successor.
Nominations for the post have come from Japan, which has nominated 61-year-old diplomat Yukiya Amano, and South Africa, which nominated 69-year-old envoy Abdul Samad Minty.
Amano secured 21 votes in the first round of secret balloting, while Minty bagged 14.
In the second round, Amano’s votes fell to 20, while Minty got 15. The third round repeated the former voting.
If neither of the hopefuls secures a victory after five rounds, new candidates can be nominated.
The two candidates have worked for the agency for many years, with excellent experience in the disarmament field.
It was difficult to have the consensus, as Westerners mostly supported Amano, while members from the developing countries preferred Minty.
Western countries apparently do not want to have another outspoken chief like ElBaradei. Instead, they hoped that the next leader would “not be so political”.
They also suggested that since ElBaradei is an Egyptian, in accordance with the principles of balance, his successor should not come from Africa.
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- Watchdog role not enough for IAEA: new chief Amano (Lead) - Sep 14, 2009
- IAEA meets to finalise ElBaradei's successors - Jun 09, 2009
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- Iran issue unsolved at ElBaradei's last IAEA board meeting - Nov 26, 2009
- Yukiya Amano appointed as next IAEA chief - Sep 14, 2009
- IAEA's top nuclear inspector resigns - Jul 01, 2010
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- Pressure mounts on Iran at ElBaradei's final IAEA board meeting (Lead) - Nov 26, 2009
- Mohamed ElBaradei to run for Egyptian presidency - Mar 10, 2011
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Tags: abdul samad, amano, atomic energy agency, board of governors, consensus, developing countries, diplomat, disarmament, hopefuls, iaea director general, international atomic energy, international atomic energy agency, international atomic energy agency iaea, member states, minty, mohamed elbaradei, s board, western countries, westerners, xinhua
