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WASHINGTON: Mexico's candidate to lead the International Monetary Fund began two days of lobbying IMF officials Monday, while his French rival is due to make the rounds on his heels, the IMF said.
“The next step in the process for the new managing director is now underway. Both candidates, Mr. Agustin Carstens and Ms. Christine Lagarde, will be meeting with the executive board this week,” the Fund said in a statement.
The head of the Mexican central bank and the French finance minister were visiting IMF headquarters in Washington to woo the votes of the members of the executive board - 24 directors representing individual countries or groups of countries - of the 187-nation Fund.
Carstens began two days of meetings Monday, and was scheduled to meet with the board Tuesday.
Lagarde will repeat that pattern beginning Wednesday, meeting with the board Thursday. Both candidates also will hold bilateral meetings with the board's executive directors, the IMF said.
“During their informal meetings with the board, each candidate will present their views on issues facing the Fund and the membership, and the executive directors will be able to exchange views with the candidates,” the IMF said.
The candidates' statements to the board will be published on the Fund's website www.imf.org -- following the meetings.
Carstens and Lagarde made the IMF's short list of candidates to succeed managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who resigned on May 18 to face sexual assault charges in New York.
Strauss-Kahn, who had been widely tipped as the Socialist contender against French President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012 elections, has denied all charges.
“The board is scheduled to meet on June 28 to discuss the strengths of each candidate, with the aim of completing the selection process by June 30,” the IMF said.
The IMF executive board intends to select his successor “by consensus,” and if that fails, by vote, by the end of the month.
The French finance ministry had announced Friday that Lagarde would arrive in Washington Tuesday and leave Thursday. Questioned by AFP, neither the ministry nor the French embassy in Washington would provide details on her agenda in the US capital.
Lagarde participated Monday in a eurozone finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg.
The 55-year-old Lagarde, in addition to having Europe's support, has received public endorsements from Egypt, Indonesia and a number of African countries.
Carstens, 53, has only garnered the expressed support of a dozen Latin American countries -- but notably not yet Brazil or Argentina.
