Alternate Candidates Emerge in Debate over Chairman of WRC
GENEVA -- Debate over a new chairman for the World Radio Conference (WRC) this month in Geneva will go down to the wire, as deadlock over two candidates plays out days before of the treaty-making conference. Maximum political pressure will arise as the clock winds down, officials said. However, an alternate candidate could emerge to keep the issue off center stage.
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Informal talks to choose a WRC chairman have narrowed the field to two candidates but have produced no consensus, said officials. A final push for accord will come at an informal heads of delegation meeting the day before conference, which runs Oct. 22 to Nov. 16, an official said. General sentiment is that the WRC 2007 chairman should come from an ITU region that includes Europe, Africa, part of the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and Mongolia, said an observer to the WRC.
Chris van Diepenbeek is favored by Europe; he won out in a vote by European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations countries, officials said. Van Diepenbeek is manager of international affairs for Frequency Infrastructures and Systems at the Radio Communications Agency Netherlands. He also chairs ITU-R study group 8, which oversees studies on the thorny issue of identifying new globally harmonized frequencies for mobile broadband.
The other top candidate, Nabil Kisrawi, is permanent representative to the ITU for the Syrian Telecommunication Establishment. He chairs the ITU-D study group on development and management of telecommunication services and networks and applications. Kisrawi has been organizing support for telecom in developing countries and Arab nations. He’s known for his knowledge of ITU, his time-consuming interventions and stances sometimes at significantly at odds with that of the U.S.
European and Arab countries are in consultations, said an official familiar with the European position. Talk among countries usually leads to one proposed candidate, said an official familiar with the European position. “You need to select somebody who would be supported by the conference.”
It may be time for ITU Secretary General Hamadoun Toure and team to seek a compromise candidate, a diplomat in Geneva said. “If the secretary general has done his job properly, the idea of a compromise should have been explored no later than the end of September,” said an Asian industry official familiar with the ITU. The Secretary General’s choice still would need delegations to agree on that person’s ability to do the job, the Asian industry official said.
Van Diepenbeek and Kisrawi have been very active in their regional meetings, an official said. “Kisrawi is a very senior, experienced and important person in the WRC process,” an official said.
Some parts of the WRC agenda can be handled easily, the Asian official said, but “some need reconciliation in negotiation.” The chairman’s job is to build consensus, but votes may be needed, the official said. “The availability of a vote is often an incentive for people to reach understanding.” Van Diepenbeek would move for a vote if there’s a majority, rather than go to small group consultations to seek consensus, a diplomat in Geneva said. The chairman has some influence, but it shouldn’t be overstated, said an official involved in the process.
Picking a third candidate out of the blue would be risky, a diplomat in Geneva said. Kavouss Arasteh of Iran is seen as a possible alternate candidate, officials said. He once headed the ITU-R’s Space Notification and Plans Division, according to the ITU website. Arasteh is well prepared, an official said. Arasteh and van Diepenbeek shared chairman’s responsibilities during a chairman’s absence at the 2004 Regional Radio Conference. Arasteh chaired the 2006 Regional Radio Conference and the WRC Conference Preparatory Meeting.
European officials interviewed support van Diepenbeek, but delegations also have discussed alternate candidates, they said. One is Mike Goddard, director of Spectrum and International Policy Office of Communications in the U.K. Another, Francois Rancy, heads the French Spectrum Agency. “Europe pays something like half of the fees of the ITU and ultimately, it doesn’t end up with a fair share of the cake,” he said.
An Arab nation is lobbying to host the WRC in 2011, which means it would choose the chairman. An Arab presence in the chairman’s spot for the 2007 WRC would affect the decision on where to hold the WRC in 2011. Politics and culture figure in the decision too, including any requirement for women to wear veils.
“This… conference cannot spend days and days selecting a chairman,” said an official involved in the WRC. “There will be an extraordinarily amount of pressure will put on the two delegates” at the informal heads of delegation meeting, an industry official said. Co-chairmanship is unlikely, said an Asian industry official familiar with ITU. Dutch and Syrian officials were unavailable for comment Monday.