ROME – Next week-end’s election of a new Director General for the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation inevitably will be influenced by external political considerations as well as the qualifications of candidates, India’s Ambassador to the Rome-based agency and to Italy, H.E. Shri Debabrat Saha, said on the eve of the historic poll.

 Asked whether it was time for an Asian candidate to run the FAO, Mr Saha pointed out on Thursday that an Indian Director General already had run the famine-fighting agency as long ago as the 1950’s. “That is why India did not consider presenting a candidate,” in the current contest, the emissary told a luncheon of the Commonwealth Club of Rome.

 Asked whether he agreed with a statement by the Iranian candidate for director general that the election was unfair because political considerations influence the outcome rather than merely the merits of the candidates, the Indian Ambassador said “because there are 192 countries voting, it is inevitable in the real world” that politics will influence the result. Voting in the contest to replace Jacques Diouf begins Sunday with Brazil and Spain favoured to go through to a final duel.

 The Indian Ambassador noted that the Iranian, Austrian, Brazilian, Indonesian and Spanish candidates all are “well qualified” for the job.