19-MAY-05
An extra-ordinary meeting of the Board of Governors has been scheduled to take place at the Bank's Temporary Relocation Agency in Tunis on 21-22 July to elect a president from the two candidates - Mr. Bisi Ogunjobi of Nigeria and Mr. Donald Kaberuka of Rwanda who led the list of six candidates standing for the presidency of the Bank.
After the presentation of the Banks balance sheet for 2004, followed by a symposium on capacity building held jointly with the UN economic Commission for Africa, the launch of the Annual Report, and the official opening ceremony performed by President Olusegun Obasanjo, the Board went into closed-door sessions on Wednesday and Thursday for a series of balloting to elect a President to succeed Mr. Omar Kabbaj, whose 10-year tenure expires at the end of August.
To win the ADB presidency, a candidate needs to secure 50 % of the total votes as well as 50.01% of regional votes. The Regionals hold 60% of the Bank Group's share capital as against 40 % per cent held by the 23 non-regional countries.
At the end of balloting, Mr. Kaberuka scored 40.53 % of the regional votes and 58.22 of the overall votes. Mr. Ogunjobi won 59.46 of the regional votes and 41.74% of the total votes.
Four other candidates who were in the race -- Kingsley Amoako (Ghana); Simba Makoni (Zimbabwe); Casmir Oye-Mba (Gabon) and Theodore Nkodo (Cameroon) -- were eliminated on the first day of balloting.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the Annual Meetings on Thursday, Nigeria's finance Minister, Mr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Chairperson of the Board of Governors said the stalemate was an indication of the democratic manner and seriousness with which the election was conducted.
-Ends-
© Press Release 2005
