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WIPO result: Gurry to be new director-general

Managing Intellectual Property

Francis Gurry of Australia will be the next WIPO director-general, after a tense day of voting today.

He beat rival Jose Graca Aranha of Brazil in a two-way vote after the other 12 candidates were either eliminated or withdrew earlier today. The tally in the final round was 42-41.

Gurry led in all four rounds of voting.

The first round of voting, this morning, saw the elimination of Bojen Pretnar of Slovenia and Gjorgji Filipov of Macedonia.

The second round of voting took place after lunch and Toufiq Ali of Bangladesh straightway announced his withdrawal from the race.

After the second round, the top three positions were unchanged, with Gurry leading again with 26 votes. Aranha maintained second place with 18 votes and Khan bagged 13.

Kenyan candidate James Otieno-Odek was eliminated as he received only one vote. One more person was supposed to be eliminated from the race, but there were three candidates who had received two votes each - Enrique Manalo of Philippines, Philippe Petit of France, and José Delmer Urbizo of Honduras.

There was supposed to be a separate vote on these three candidates to decide which two would remain in the race. However, the chairman called for a consultation and a break followed.

Minutes after the break, a spate of withdrawals occurred beginning with Jose Delmer Urbizo of Honduras and Jorge Amigo Castañeda of Mexico.

Soon after Enrique Manalo of the Philippines, Philippe Petit of France, Yoshiyuki Takagi of Japan, Alicja Adamczak of Poland, and Boris Simonov of Russia all pulled out.

This left the top three competing with each other. In a third vote, Khan received the fewest votes with only 19, while Gurry still managed to occupy top position with 35 votes. However, Aranha caught up on the difference with 29 votes promising a close finish.

In the last round of voting, one vote was enough for Gurry to be selected as the next director-general. He will take up the position, replacing incumbent Kamil Idris, after the General Assemblies which will be held from September 22 to 30 this year.

Gurry is the deputy director-general at the WIPO and was one of the favourites in today's elections. He holds law degrees from the University of Melbourne and a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

He is also a vice president of the International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions (IFCAI).