IMF opens managing director race, but to a party of one?

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WASHINGTON, July 15 (AFP): The International Monetary Fund has opened the selection process for the next managing director, but it remains to be seen whether there will be more than one candidate.
Under an unwritten and increasingly scorned agreement, Europe chooses a European for IMF managing director and the United States picks an American president of the World Bank, the IMF's sister institution.
To general surprise, the IMF managing director, Rodrigo Rato, announced on June 28 he would step down in late October, two years before the end of his term.
European Union finance ministers moved swiftly last week to throw their support behind France's Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a former finance minister and moderate socialist, to succeed him.
The IMF executive board, however, issued a statement a couple of days later outlining the selection process, stressing the contest was open to any national of the Fund's 185 member countries.
"The nomination period will commence immediately and will close on August 31, 2007," the board said Thursday.
The successful candidate would have a distinguished record in economic policymaking at a senior level, an outstanding professional background and proven managerial and diplomatic skills, the executive board said.
"In September, the executive board will consider the candidate(s) who have been nominated on the basis of the above candidate profile, without geographical preferences," the board said.
The winning candidate "will be a national of any of the Fund's 185 members," the board reiterated, stressing the openeness of a selection process that has come under fire for being anything but.
Analysts said the invitation was a positive move to improve the IMF but questioned whether other candidates would be proposed, and if so, if they would have adequate backing.