GENEVA – The election of the next president of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was almost derailed on Monday after the body’s board tried to postpone voting to investigate sexual harassment allegations against one of the candidates, Kenya’s Abbas Gullet.

However, Kate Forbes of the American Red Cross was eventually elected after the general assembly overruled the board and pushed ahead with the election.

There was an uproar from the Red Cross and Red Crescent societies after a last-minute announcement by IFRC’s outgoing president, Francesco Rocca, that the governing board had decided to postpone elections following sexual harassment allegations against Gullet, one of the four contenders for the top job.

The alleged acts were said to have taken place between 2016 and 2018, Rocca said. Gullet, who was secretary general of the Kenyan Red Cross from 2005 until 2020, has said he would welcome an investigation into the allegations.

Rocca, who at first didn’t disclose the name of Abbas or the nature of the allegations, told the general assembly that the board had decided to launch an investigation into claims received on 28 November.

“This decision was not made lightly but is necessary to ensure the integrity of the federation and the concerned candidate,” Rocca said, arguing that free and fair elections could not be held under the circumstances.

But the announcement displeased delegates in the room, triggering heated exchanges with Rocca. 

‘Slap in the face’

The Moroccan Red Crescent said it was a “slap in the face of the societies in Georgia, Egypt, the US and Kenya”, the national societies backing the various candidates, describing it as a “manoeuvre” by the board and the presidency.

Jordan’s national chapter also protested against the last-minute postponement and said it was up to the general assembly to decide, drawing applause from the room.

Addressing the elephant in the room, the Kenyan Red Cross told the assembly that its candidate was being targeted and proposed that elections go ahead and if elected, Gullet would step aside pending the investigation.

Gullet, who was invited by Rocca to take the floor, accused the board of “double standards”, referring to Rocca’s integrity being brought into question when he was a candidate in 2017 over the fact that he went to prison when he was 19 years old for dealing drugs, to which an irritated Rocca replied that he had addressed this openly with the general assembly at that time.

The elections to replace Rocca were already mired in controversy. Rocca announced in June he would step down from the position early following conflicts of interest after his election in March as president of the right-wing government of the Lazio region, encompassing Rome.

After a row over the technicalities of whether the elections could go ahead or not, the governing board walked out of the room to reconsider the matter and decided it was finally up to the general assembly, given the level of disagreement with the board.

Rocca cautioned delegates that they would have to be ready to deal with the reputational fallout of having an elected president step aside during an investigation into sexual harassment allegations.

However, the overwhelming majority voted in favour of holding the elections. The Red Crosses of Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Denmark and Trinidad et Tobago were among the few outliers to vote against.

Forbes was finally elected with 88 votes in favour out of 163 national chapters that took part in the vote. Gullet received 75 votes. Natia Loladze, president of Georgia’s Red Cross and IFRC vice-president, was eliminated in the first round, only gathering 15 votes, and Egypt Red Crescent’s chief executive Ramy El Nazer, who amassed 22 votes, decided to withdraw from the race.

The investigation into the allegations against Gullet will still go ahead, given that he is a member of the IFRC’s Standing Committee.

Second female president

Forbes was, until now, the chairman of the IFRC’s Audit and Risk Commission. She’s been an American Red Cross volunteer for 43 years and has held various positions within the IFRC over the last 17 years.

During her presentation speech earlier in the morning, she said that, if elected she would only “serve one term so I can focus on the work and not on being re-elected”. 

She also said she had resigned from her other board positions and promised she would not run for political office.

Forbes, 72, from Phoenix, Arizona, is the second woman and the fifth American to hold the position in the federation’s 104 years of existence. She took over from Rocca as soon as the assembly closed.

In short remarks, Forbes said that in what had been a “strange day”, her message was of “unity” for the global movement.

Rocca closed the meeting, echoing Forbes’s call for unity and apologising for his own mistakes during his time as president.

This article was first published in Geneva Solutions.

Image Credits: IFRC.