The UN migration agency says Amy Pope of the United States has been elected as its next director general.
She will be the first woman to head the International Organization for Migration.
Pope currently serves as the deputy of Director General Antonio Vitorino, a former Portuguese government minister, and ran against him in Monday’s election. The IOM said member states elected Pope to lead the Geneva-based agency at a special session. She will start her five-year term on October 1. IOM has 175 member countries.
Earlier, as the two candidates left a cavernous conference hall in Geneva one after the other to let member countries vote, Pope and Vitorino didn’t speak to each other — but she expressed confidence to a handful of reporters as she passed by.
“Gonna be a great day!” she mused, tapping a journalist on the arm and replying “yes” when asked if she had enough votes to win. The Portuguese diplomatic mission in Geneva tweeted that the Community of Portuguese Language Countries, which counts nine members, was backing Vitorino, and the European Union — of which Portugal is a member — in recent days announced that he’s the 27-member bloc’s candidate.