No winner yet in race for UNESCO chief

After three rounds of voting in Paris, no candidate has yet received the necessary majority in the race to become new director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UENSCO). The front runner is the current Egyptian Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, who received 25 of 57 votes from the members of the UNESCO Executive Committee. Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European commissioner for External Relations, has dropped out of the race after finishing in third place, citing the “superior interest of the organization and of European unity”.

Irina Georgieva Bokova, a former foreign minister of Bulgaria came second behind Hosni with 13 votes. Hosni is controversial because of Egypt's history of censorship and a comment he made to an Egyptian parliamentarian that Israeli books in Egyptian libraries should be burned. Several Jewish organizations said Hosni should not become the new UNESCO chief.