IMF: new chief selection due on 30th June

IMF: new chief selection due on 30th June

The International Monetary Fund's selection process for a new managing director will kick off with nominations on Monday,and the final decision expected by 30th June, the institution has said.

"I am very pleased to announce that the Fund's Executive Board has adopted a procedure that allows the selection of the next managing director to take place in an open, merit-based, and transparent manner," A Shakour Shaalan, dean of the IMF executive board, said in a statement late Friday.

The position was opened in extraordinary circumstances this week after the former head Dominique Strauss-Kahn resigned in the wake of a sex scandal.

An individual "may be nominated for the position of Managing Director by a Fund Governor or an Executive Director during a nomination period which shall commence on 23rd May, 2011 and will close on 10th June, 2011," said the IMF.

The board's aim "is to select the managing director by consensus with the objective of completing the selection process by June 30, 2011."

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde has emerged as Europe's choice to lead the IMF, getting a boost when a Turkish favorite ruled out his candidacy for the powerful job.

Even as leaders in emerging economies clamored for one of their own to take a job monopolised by Europeans since 1946, analysts called Lagarde the odds-on favorite to replace Strauss-Kahn after he stepped down to face sexual assault charges in New York.

Lagarde is "practically a shoo-in" as the European Union's candidate to succeed Strauss-Kahn, an EU source said.

The selection procedure "allows the selection of the next managing director to take place in an open, merit-based, and transparent manner," said Shakour Shaalan, the senior member of the 24- person board.

While European countries want the next leader to be European, China is pushing for the next head to be from an emerging economy.

The New York Times reported that the fund's board would draw up a shortlist of at least three candidates.

French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde emerged as the leading contender to replace Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was indicted yesterday on charges including attempted rape, The Times said.

Strauss-Kahn resigned on Thursday, but insisted he was innocent.

Kemal Dervis, Turkey's former economy minister, said yesterday ruled himself out of contention on Friday.

"Speculation about succession at the IMF has included me in the group of persons with relevant experience," he said in a statement.

"But I have not been, and will not be, a candidate."

Officials in emerging markets said the next IMF managing director should come from a developing nation even as they failed to unite behind one candidate.

A European has been at the helm of the institution since it was founded 65 years ago.