PARIS, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Irina Bokova, a former Bulgarian foreign minister, is the first woman to lead the United Nations' cultural unit, UNESCO, officials said.
Bokova was elected Tuesday after five rounds of voting saw her prevail over Farouk Hosni of Egypt, Radio France Internationale reported Wednesday.
The vote by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's 58-nation executive council was 31 votes for Bokova and 27 for Hosni, who had come under criticism after it was revealed he made several anti-Semitic comments in the past.
"This is really unexpected and a huge victory for a small country like Bulgaria," Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said of her election.
Bokova will succeed Japan's Koichiro Matsuura after her election is approved by the agency's 193-member assembly next month in Paris, where UNESCO is located.
The multilingual Bokova, 57, helped draft her country's new constitution after the fall of communism, served as foreign minister in 1996-1997 and worked at the U.N. headquarters in New York.
