Delegates in Rome for U.N. FAO election

ROME — Delegates from the 191 countries that are members of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization will elect the first new director general of the FAO in 18 years on Sunday through a complicated voting process that is expected to take several rounds.

Voting is by secret ballot. There are six candidates and, according to the rules, after each round the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated. The candidates made speeches to the delegates today.

Agriculture Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan is representing the United States at the conference.

The six candidates, nominated by their governments, are:

• Franz Fischler, Austria
• José Graziano da Silva, Brazil
• Indroyono Soesilo, Indonesia
• Mohammad Saeid Noori Naeini, Iran
• Abdul Latif Rashid, Iraq
• Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé, Spain

According to media reports, Graziano da Silva is the favored candidate because no South American has ever held the post and Brazil has a strong record in recent years of reducing hunger through its Zero Hunger program. But Moratinos has also claimed that he is doing well.

There have been seven FAO directors general since the organization's founding in 1945:

• Sir John Boyd Orr, United Kingdom, 1945-48
• Norris E. Dodd, United States, 1948-54
• Philip Vincent Cardon, United States, 1954-56
• Binay Ranjan Sen, India, 1956-67
• Addeke Hendrik Boerma, Netherlands, 1968-75
• Edouard Saouma, Lebanon, 1976-93
• Jacques Diouf, Senegal, 1994-present

Statements from the candidates