Türkiye seeks a seventh consecutive term on the ITU Council

Türkiye will stand for a seventh consecutive term on the Council of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), for 2027 to 2030, in a field of nine candidates for Western Europe's eight seats, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority (BTK) said on 23 October.

The vote takes place at the ITU Plenipotentiary Conference in Doha from 9 to 27 November. There, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are four of the five candidates for the two seats that Eastern Europe and Northern Asia holds on the Radio Regulations Board, the ITU's list of candidates shows.

Ahmet Hamdi Atalay, Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, and Mehmet Koçyiğit, President of BTK, announced the candidacy at a reception at BTK's headquarters for ambassadors and diplomatic representatives posted in Ankara, the release says. Türkiye has been represented on the Council without a break for six terms since 2002, the release adds, and Mr Koçyiğit said it had been one of the eight countries representing Western Europe throughout that time. Mr Atalay said its strength lay in bringing different views closer together, building consensus and advancing solutions that benefit all member states. The conference also elects the Secretary-General, the Deputy Secretary-General and three bureau directors, posts listed in The Week Ahead of 19 October.

Nine candidates for eight seats

The Western European seat is not automatic. In 2022 Türkiye won the eighth and last of the region's seats with 122 votes, ahead of Greece with 99 and Hungary with 92, the ITU's 2022 results show. This year the candidates are the eight members elected then, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom, plus Greece. With nine candidates for eight seats, one will not be elected.

In Eastern Europe and Northern Asia, the ITU's Region C, eight states are standing for five Council seats: the five elected in 2022, Romania, Azerbaijan, Poland, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic, plus Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and the Russian Federation. Azerbaijan came second in the region in 2022 with 154 votes, while the Russian Federation, with 73, was not elected. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were not on the 2022 list. For any of the three challengers to win a seat, one of the five members elected in 2022 would have to lose.

Four corridor candidates for two Board seats

The Radio Regulations Board has 12 members, two each from the Americas, Western Europe and Region C and three each from Africa and from Asia and Australasia, according to an ITU explainer on the election process. It approves Rules of Procedure where the Radio Regulations are difficult to apply, considers appeals against decisions of the Radiocommunication Bureau and reports of harmful interference, and identifies matters to be referred to the ITU's radiocommunication conferences. Each member state may propose one candidate, and in each region the candidates with the most votes are elected, with a special ballot to settle a tie.

Region C's candidates are Zaza Gonjilashvili of Georgia, Sitara Mehdiyeva of Azerbaijan, Rizat Nurshabekov of Kazakhstan, Sirojiddin Usmanov of Uzbekistan and Nikolay Varlamov of the Russian Federation. In 2022 the region's two seats went to Azerbaijan's candidate, Sahiba Hasanova, with 114 votes, and to Mr Nurshabekov with 76, ahead of Slovakia's candidate with 66, Mr Varlamov with 57 and Uzbekistan's candidate, Almira Gataulina, with 33. Mr Nurshabekov is the only candidate this year who won a Region C seat last time. Azerbaijan has put forward a new candidate, and Georgia did not stand in 2022. With four of the five candidates from the corridor and two seats to fill, at least two of the four will miss out.

What the documents leave out

The ITU publishes the candidates and, after the vote, the tallies; none of the documents reviewed records voting intentions, endorsements or regional agreements, and BTK's release sets out no programme for a new term beyond the officials' statements. Candidatures had to reach the ITU by 23:59 Geneva time on 12 October, the 28th day before the conference, under its election procedures. Council and Board elections normally take a single round of voting.

The conference opens on 9 November, and the Council members and Board members it elects serve from 2027 to 2030. Corridor Signal's Spectrum Calendar lists the conference alongside the region's licence and coverage deadlines.