The Chairperson of the Board of Governors Ms. Taous Feroukhi has scheduled an informal meeting of the Board at which the five candidates for the post of Director General of the IAEA will each make a presentation of their candidature.

The meeting, open to all Members of the IAEA, is scheduled for 26 May 2009.

The five nominated candidates are:

Mr. Yukiya Amano of Japan;
Mr. Luis Echávarri of Spain;
Mr. Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa;
Mr. Ernest Petri? of Slovenia; and
Mr. Jean-Pol Poncelet of Belgium.

The five candidates were nominated by their respective governments in line with a process approved by the Board in October 2008. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei′s term of office expires on 30 November 2009. He has stated that he is not available for a fourth term of office.

Background

Dr. ElBaradei is the IAEA′s fourth Director General since 1957. He was first appointed to the office effective December 1997, and reappointed in 2001 and 2005. He follows Hans Blix, IAEA Director General from 1981 to 1997; Sigvard Eklund, IAEA Director General from 1961 to 1981; and Sterling Cole, IAEA Director General from 1957 to 1961.