ISLAMABAD: The World Health Assembly on Tuesday elected Ethiopia’s Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus as the next director general of the World Health Organisation as Pakistani candidate Dr Sania Nishtar suffered a defeat in the polls.
Dr Tedros, who is the former Ethiopian foreign and health minister, would be the first African to lead WHO. He was declared winner in the third round of voting that took place in Geneva.
In the last two rounds, the delegates chose between Dr Tedros and Britain’s Dr David Nabarro, a UN veteran. The final score was Mr Tedros’ 133 to Mr David’s 50.
Mr Tedros would succeed outgoing Margaret Chan. He will assume office on July 1 for a five-year term.
The new chief would take office at a critical time when the organisation is facing several challenges, including a financial crunch and criticism for its slow response to 2014 Ebola Virus outbreak. Additionally, it faces the governance and structural issues. There are growing calls for the reform of the organisation.
The WHO chief is elected by secret ballot, where each country has got one vote. It was the first time in WHO history that all 194 member states could vote in the contest. In earlier editions the choice was made by the WHO executive board.
Dr Nishtar’s loss came as a serious setback for the government that had invested heavily both in terms of time and resources in her campaign. She got 38 votes out of a total of 185 that had been cast. Being the lowest scorer, Dr Nishtar was ousted from the contest in the first round of voting.
Importantly, her poor score reflected Pakistan’s standing in the world body as she was the country’s official nominee, an official admitted, asking not to be named.
He noted that the election was an important international contest.
Most Asian countries, a Pakistani delegate told Dawn, did not vote for Ms Nishtar.
India, it should be recalled, had actively lobbied against her because of heightened tensions between the two countries. India was supporting Mr Tedros.
Ms Nishtar was among the three candidates finalised by the executive board after interviews in January for voting.
An official disclosed that the government had been advised against naming Ms Nishtar as its candidate for the position because of her limited experience.
Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2017
