India faces a tough choice as close neighbours Nepal and Bangladesh have both decided to nominate candidates to contest the post for the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional Director, for an election which will also come up for discussion on the sidelines of the G-20 summit this weekend.
The candidates include Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina’s daughter Saima Wazed, who is going head-to-head with one of the WHO’s senior-most officials, Shambhu Prasad Acharya, who is from Nepal. The election for the WHO South East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) Director will be held in New Delhi during a closed-door SEARO session (October 30-November 2), and the winner will be declared based on the majority of votes from 11 members — Bangladesh, Bhutan, North Korea, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Timor-Leste. India’s Poonam Khetrapal Singh has held the SEARO Director’s post since 2014.
When asked about India’s position, government officials said that there was “still some time” before a decision would be made on whether to support Ms. Wazed or Mr. Acharya for the WHO SEARO Director’s post, but indicated that the Bangladesh candidate had an “edge”, given the importance of the India-Bangladesh relationship, as well as Prime Minister Hasina’s backing for the candidate. However, officials conceded that like any election within the UN system, much will depend on each SEARO member country’s negotiations with Bangladesh and Nepal, as they work on a system of reciprocity, in return garnering support on some other UN vote for themselves.
