Jean-Pol Poncelet of Belgium has withdrawn from the race to lead the International Atomic Energy Agency, narrowing the pool of candidates down to three ahead of tomorrow's scheduled vote, Agence France-Presse reported (see GSN, June 30).
Brussels formally asked the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation governing board not to consider Poncelet's candidacy, an agency spokesman confirmed.
The former Belgian Cabinet member chose to withdraw in order to facilitate "consensus-building within the board on the important and urgent decision to nominate a successor" to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who is set to step down in November, Belgium said in a statement.
"It is the strong desire of Mr. Poncelet that the board will be able to arrive at a satisfactory outcome at its upcoming meeting," the statement says. "In the unfortunate case that this would not be possible, Mr. Poncelet confirms that he remains at the disposal of board members for any further consultation that they may deem appropriate."
Slovenian judge Ernest Petric, former chairman of the IAEA Board of Governors, also withdrew from contention this week. That leaves Luis Echavarri of Spain and the two IAEA envoys who faced off for the top spot in March -- Yukiya Amano of Japan and Abdul Minty of South Africa (Agence France-Presse/Spacewar.com, July 1).
Amano led all three rounds of voting then and garnered the most support in a nonbinding straw poll of the agency's 35 governing nations last month. However, he has not at any time received support from two-thirds of board members, which is necessary to claim victory.
Diplomats saw no consensus emerging in the months-old campaign to lead the U.N. nuclear watchdog, Reuters reported yesterday. None of the candidates has the demeanor, political savvy and technical expertise necessary to win support from both industrialized and developing countries, according to diplomats.
"There is no real consensus candidate out there. This split is doing a lot of damage to the IAEA," one European diplomat said (Mark Heinrich, Reuters I, June 30).
Amano is the overwhelming favorite of industrialized nations, which are most interested in curbing nuclear proliferation, while Minty has won support from developing countries more interested in spreading civilian nuclear technology and expertise. Echavarri, who leads nuclear energy operations for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, has attempted to position himself as a neutral candidate who would take the concerns of each side into account.
Some diplomats guessed that the governing board had less than a 50 percent chance of agreeing on a candidate in the next round of polling, where secret voting would narrow the field to two candidates. If neither candidate received two-thirds majority support at that point, the governing board would restart the election process a second time and campaigning would extend into September.
The board must choose a new chief by September for the agency to maintain smooth operations when ElBaradei steps down, Reuters reported (Mark Heinrich, Reuters II, June 30).