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5 in race for top IAEA job
(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-04-29 07:46
VIENNA: Five candidates are in the running to take over from Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the UN atomic watchdog, diplomats close to the election process said yesterday as the deadline for nominations expired. The deadline for nominations for the position of director general at the International Atomic Energy Agency expired at midnight on Monday. Egyptian diplomat ElBaradei is stepping down in November after 12 years at the head of the agency. "As of 4 pm (1400 GMT) yesterday, there were five candidates," a diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The candidates to succeed him are: South Africa's long-time ambassador to the IAEA, Abdul Samad Minty, 69; Japanese ambassador Yukiya Amano, 61; Ernest Petric, 72, of Slovenia, a former IAEA ambassador; Luis Echavarri, 60, of Spain, current head of the OECD's Nuclear Energy Agency; and former Belgian deputy prime minister, defense and energy minister, Jean-Pol Poncelet, 58, the diplomat said. The IAEA is unlikely to name the candidates officially for a couple of days yet, to give Taous Feroukhi, who chairs its 35-member board, time to inform the IAEA's member states, the diplomat said. Furthermore, "their CVs have to be translated into all official languages. It's just bureaucratic stuff," the diplomat said. The race to succeed ElBaradei was re-opened last month after neither of the two candidates - Minty and Amano - secured the necessary two-thirds majority on the IAEA's board. AFP
(China Daily 04/29/2009 page11) |
