6 Nations Jostle for FAO Top Post

Six nations including Spain, Iraq, Iran, Austria, Brazil and Indonesia, are currently in a hot race to succeed

 Jacques Diouf, as the Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Already, six candidates have been presented by FAO Member Nations for the post.

It was gathered from the UN agency on Tuesday that the election of a new Director-General will take

place in a secret ballot to be held at the beginning of the 37th FAO Conference (Rome, 25 June to 2 July

2011) by the organization's 191 member nations. The deadline for nominations was yesterday, 31 January.

The six candidates, each nominated by his government, are listed in alphabetical order by country:

Franz Fischler (Austria), José Graziano da Silva (Brazil), Indroyono Soesilo (Indonesia), Mohammad

Saeid Noori Naeini (Iran), Abdul Latif Rashid (Iraq) and Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé (Spain).

The next Director-General of FAO will be appointed for the period 1 January 2012 to 31 July 2015.

The Director-General will be eligible for only one additional mandate of four years. The rules regarding

the length of mandates and the issue of re-election were changed at the 36th FAO Conference in November

 2009 as part of FAO's renewal process.

FAO's new chief will be elected by a majority of votes cast. Each country will have one vote and the

 balloting is secret.  The new Director-General will follow Jacques Diouf, from Senegal, who has been

 in office since 1994.  Since the establishment of FAO in 1945, there have been seven Director-Generals:

Sir John Boyd Orr, United Kingdom, 1945-1948 , Norris E. Dodd, United States, 1948-1954 , Philip

 Vincent Cardon, United States, 1954-1956 , Binay Ranjan Sen, India, 1956-1967 , Addeke Hendrik

Boerma, Netherlands, 1968-1975 , Edouard Saouma, Lebanon, 1976-1993 , Jacques Diouf, Senegal,

1994-current