WASHINGTON: World Bank chief Jim Yong Kim will seek a second term of office, the global development lender said on Tuesday as it announced the start of a selection process for the presidency.

Kim’s bid to remain as president comes in the face a rare public rebuke from the Bank’s rank-and-file, who earlier this month declared that the institution faced a “crisis of leadership.” “The executive directors expressed unanimous support for an open, merit-based and transparent selection, with nominations open to all member countries,” the executive board said in a statement. Kim’s five-year term ends on June 30.

Following an unwritten rule, the United States, the Bank’s largest shareholder, has always chosen its president, while the International Monetary Fund leader has been drawn from Europe.

The World Bank staff association said in an open letter on August 8 that this tradition flew in the face of principles of transparency, diversity and merit-based selection, given that the process had always selected an American man. The executive board said Kim had been selected in 2012 according to new principles meant to ensure an “open and transparent” process and that the next president would be as well.

Published in Dawn, August 25th, 2016