Washington, June 30: A top Slovenian judge dropped out of the race to succeed U.N. nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Tuesday, two days ahead of an election diplomats fear could be inconclusive like an earlier vote in March.
The governing body of the International Atomic Energy Agency has been struggling to agree on a new chief as it faces the spreading spectre of nations gaining nuclear arms capability, especially Iran.
Ernest Petric said his campaign looked pointless after he finished last out of five candidates in a June 9 straw poll and he was bowing out to help the hunt for a consensus candidate.
But he said no one in the remaining field looked capable of winning a 2/3 majority in the IAEA’s governing board and bridging a split between developing and industrialized nations over nuclear priorities.
“I will be notifying the chairman of the (35-nation) board today that I am retreating from this election process,” said Petric, a constitutional judge and former Slovenian ambassador on the board who chaired the Vienna-based body in 2006-07.
“I want to make it easier for a candidate acceptable to the great majority of the board to emerge. But I am worried it won’t happen again this week. We are not moving in the direction of consensus,” he told Reuters.
Thursday’s closed-door election will be the second since March, when Japanese IAEA Ambassador Yukiya Amano fell a single vote short of the 24 needed for victory.
Amano remains the frontrunner but his backing slid to 20 in the straw poll. His March rival, South African IAEA governor Abdul Samad Minty, took 11, while a European newcomer, Luis Echavarri, got four votes and two others none at all.
The straw poll was held to identify a favourite and spur losers to drop out and avoid fragmenting the vote into deadlock.
Amano draws backing mainly from industrialized nations and Minty from developing states while the Europeans — from Spain and Belgium — still in the race have depicted themselves as broad compromise candidates.
U.S.-led wealthy nations believe the IAEA’s foremost priority is to bolster inspections to prevent countries in volatile regions acquiring the means to make atomic bombs.
Poor countries, who comprise almost half the IAEA board, want more time and resources devoted to getting rich nations to share nuclear technology for energy to hasten development.
Diplomats say none of the contenders has stood out as someone trusted to fill both bills evenhandedly, with the mix of charisma and cross-cultural, technical and managerial skills needed to run a key custodian of global peace and security well.
“There is no real consensus candidate out there. This split is doing a lot of damage to the IAEA,” said a European diplomat.
ElBaradei, 66, a Nobel Peace laureate in 2005, will retire in November after 12 years in office.
—Agencies