Bulgarian beats Egyptian anti-Semite for UNESCO post

Controversial Egyptian loses UNESCO vote

PARIS — In a fifth and final round of voting, a Bulgarian diplomat narrowly defeated Egypt’s culture minister for the leadership post at Unesco on Tuesday night, ending a bitterly fought contest during which critics of the Egyptian candidate accused him of anti-Semitism and censorship.

The victor, Irina Bokova, 57, won by a vote of 31 to 27 to be the new director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Her opponent, Culture Minister Farouk Hosny, 71, had been considered the favorite to win.

A race that began with nine candidates, with Mr. Hosny in the lead, was affected by charges that he was in favor of burning books by Israelis and keeping restrictions on Egypt’s carefully edited press — incompatible with a United Nations agency that is supposed to defend press freedom.
An alliance of Unesco board members opposed to Mr. Hosny finally coalesced around Ms. Bokova, a former Bulgarian foreign minister and currently Bulgaria’s ambassador to France and Unesco, which is headquartered in Paris.

Unesco has never been run by someone from the Arab world or Eastern Europe. The new director general replaces Koichiro Matsuura of Japan.

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