Arrangements have been concluded to elect a new Director General of the International Labour Organisation ILO.
The process for the election of the number one man at the helm of affairs at the ILO office in Geneva Switzerland, will commence tomorrow Friday 25th March.
The new leader will be the 11th Director-General of the Organisation.
There are five candidates vying for the position.
The five candidates for the post are: Gilbert Houngbo of Togo, Kang Kyung-wha of the Republic of Korea, Mthunzi Mdwaba of South Africa, Muriel Pénicaud of France and Greg Vines of Australia.
Members of the ILO’s Governing Body which includes Nigeria, will vote during a closed sitting that begins at 09:00 GMT.
A statement by the ILO Media office states that “there will be several rounds of secret ballots, with breaks of at least 45-minutes between each round, until an eventual winner is selected.
“In each round the candidate with the lowest number of votes will drop out until a candidate gains more than half of the votes of all voting members”.
After each round according to the statement, the names of the remaining candidates will appear on the Governing Body website and as soon as the name of the elected candidate is known, the ILO will issue a press release, announcing the winner of the vote.
“At this point the Governing Body sitting becomes public and the Director-General-elect will make a statement that will be broadcast on the ILO web-site”, the statement said.
The new Director-General’s term will begin on 1st October 2022.
The current Director-General, Guy Ryder, from the United Kingdom, has held the office since 2012.
The International Labour Organisation, a United Nations Agency was founded in 1919 after the Second World War with the aim of pursuing a vision based on the premise that universal lasting peace can be established only if it is based upon decent treatment of workers.
As at the year 2021, the ILO has 187 member States including Nigeria.
Dominica Nwabufo
