WIPO Director General Election: Down To Three Candidates

World Intellectual Property Organization members this morning held a first round of voting for the director general candidate to lead the UN organisation for the next six years. The top three candidates, from Australia, Nigeria and Panama, will advance to the second round to be held this afternoon.

The results of the first round are:

Francis Gurry (Australia) 46

Geoffrey Onyeama (Nigeria) 20

Alfredo Suescum Alfaro (Panama) 10

Jüri Seilenthal (Estonia) 7

Gurry, Onyeama, and Suescum advance to the next round, which is scheduled to be held at 2:30 this afternoon at WIPO. A final round will be held between the remaining two candidates. Seilenthal is eliminated.

The vote – by secret ballot – is among the 83 member states who are currently members of the WIPO Coordination Committee. The committee outcome is a recommendation that will be sent to the full WIPO membership for a yes or no vote. A extraordinary General Assembly is scheduled to meet for this reason on 8-9 May.

Gurry has been the WIPO director general since 2008. Onyeama also has had a distinguished background at WIPO, coming in the same year as Gurry (1985). Onyeama has gained the support of the African Union, which has 19 members on the Coordination Committee. Support for the others has not been made known.

The 46 votes for Gurry is a slight increase from 2008, when narrowly he won by one vote with 42. In 2008, there were 15 candidates and Gurry took the first round with 24 votes in a straw poll (IPW, WIPO, 13 May 2014). And in 2008, when the number of candidates was down to three, Gurry received 35 votes.

This morning’s result can be interpreted different ways, according to observers. Some might view it as an improvement for Gurry, while another strategy raised by an observer might be that if the opponents were to withdraw before the end of today’s voting process, it would send the existing results to the General Assembly, where it is not certain to receive a favorable approval.

Information on the candidates is here (IPW, WIPO, 12 February 2014).