GENEVA: Ken Isaacs, the US nominee to lead the UN migration agency, wasknocked out of the race on Friday after coming third behind Portugal’sAntonio Vitorino and Costa Rica’s Laura Thompson in a secret ballot ofmember states in Geneva, delegates said.link#_>

After four rounds of voting, Vitorino, a former European Commissioner andPortuguese deputy prime minister, was declared the winner by acclamation,and will lead the International Organisation for Migration for a five-yearterm.

Isaacs, vice president of US evangelical charity Samaritan’s Purse, hadcaused controversy after being forced to apologise for tweets and socialmedia posts in which he disparaged Muslims.

The leadership race comes at a crucial time for global migration politics,as US President Donald Trump attracts criticism for his “zero tolerance”policy on the Mexican border and the European Union struggles to find unityon how to deal with the influx of mainly African migrants across theMediterranean.

The job has traditionally gone to an American, but before the election somediplomats predicted that the changing status of IOM, which joined the UNfamily in 2016, and the wide-open election might cause governments tochallenge that assumption. The White House had strongly backed Isaacs,despite US withdrawal from other international bodies and agreements, suchas the UN Human Rights Council.

“The choice of who will be the new director of the InternationalOrganisation for Migration will be extremely important for UN action inrespect of migration,” Elspeth Guild, a migration expert and law professorat Queen Mary University of London, told Reuters earlier this week.

“And I think that it will also be terribly important in seeking to resolveand perhaps take some of the sting out of some the migration politics thatare perturbing international relations at the moment”.

Keith Harper, who served as US human rights ambassador under PresidentBarack Obama, said in a tweet that Isaacs’ rejection was “yet another signthat US power, authority and prestige has been so dramatically diminished”.

The election continued after Isaacs dropped out, with the winner needingtwo-thirds of the votes. Delegates said the first three rounds were led byVitorino.

Thompson, currently deputy head of IOM, came second, while Isaacs’ share ofthe vote shrank in each successive round. During the 1990s, Vitorino was aminister in the Portuguese government of Antonio Guterres, now UN SecretaryGeneral. Agencies