VIENNA: Thirty-five nations vote tomorrow for a new International Atomic Energy Agency chief at a time of mounting challenges to the nuclear non-proliferation regime, but it was unclear if a winner would emerge.
IAEA Director Mohamed El Baradei, who shared the 2005 Nobel peace prize with his agency, leaves office in November after 12 years marked by rows with the ex-Bush administration over what he deemed aggressive US policy toward Iraq and Iran.
The vote by the UN agency's Board of Governors will pit Japan's ambassador, Yukiya Amano, favored largely by industrialized states, against South African counterpart Abdul Samad Minty, with core support among developing nations.
Diplomats said Amano, 62, had cemented a 6-10 vote lead over Minty, 69, and seemed closer than last month to the two-thirds margin in the IAEA’s policy-making body needed for victory. But an election stalemate remained possible, given at least half-a-dozen undecided delegations and chances for switching preferences tactically without detection in the secret ballot.
