Sawt Falasteen - US challenger leads battle for top UN migration job

After an unusually acrimonious leadership battle that pitted the United States against its European allies, the International Organization for Migration's 175 member states kicked off the secret ballot in Geneva early Monday.

They faced a choice between backing former Portuguese government minister Antonio Vitorino for a second term, or supporting his US deputy Amy Pope to steer the organisation for the next five years.

All but 10 of IOM's members took part in the first round of voting, and after all the light green ballot papers had been tallied, Pope had raked in 98 votes against Vitorino's 67.

That was 12 short of the 110 needed to reach the two-thirds majority required to declare victory.

"I am confident," Pope told AFP after the first round ended, voicing hope that no more than one more round of voting would be needed to get her across the finish line.

The IOM was founded in 1951 to handle the displacements in Europe following World War II but only joined the UN fold seven years ago.

The race for the top job at the organisation comes at a critical time, as global numbers of migrants soar.

The Geneva-based body is the leading international agency addressing the needs of some 281 million migrants throughout the world, according to a 2020 estimate.

The drawn-out campaign for the director general position has caused a rift between Washington -- which has invested heavily in ushering an American back into a traditionally US-held leadership role -- and its European allies, observers say.

- Shock challenge -

"It does seem to have caused a certain amount of diplomatic consternation," Megan Bradley, an associate professor at McGill University in Montreal and an expert on the IOM, told AFP.

Within the UN system, agency chiefs who wish to take on a second term are typically shooed in without challenge.

When Pope announced her candidacy in October, "it was a bit of a shock", a European diplomat in Geneva acknowledged to AFP on condition of anonymity.

"It was not seen as a friendly move."

Vitorino, a 66-year-old former Portuguese defence minister and deputy prime minister who became IOM chief in 2018, has meanwhile appeared defiant.

"All my predecessors for 70 years made two mandates, and I don't see any reason for a successful first mandate not to be followed by a second mandate," he told AFP in March.

Vitorino enjoys particularly strong support from European countries and has been praised for effectively leading the rapidly expanding organisation.

- Climate change -

But Pope, 49, appears to have been able to convince countries in other regions where she has relentlessly campaigned, insisting a fresh vision was needed to take IOM "into the 21st century".

"We're still kind of stuck in old ways of looking at migration," Pope told AFP in March.

She has called for a broader focus on the impacts of climate change on migration, which she dubbed "one of the most significant challenges for our generation".

With a long career in migration and disaster relief, including in the administration of former US president Barack Obama, Pope has high-level backing.

US President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are among the many who have weighed in on her behalf in recent days.

But observers said Washington's push might be less about the individuals involved and more about reasserting its traditional hold on the IOM director general post.

Vitorino is only the second non-American to lead the organisation, and the first in decades.

In 2018, he won by acclamation after member states rebuffed a candidate accused of climate change denial and anti-Muslim bigotry who had been proposed by then US president Donald Trump.

T.Khatib--SF-PST