Amid growing concerns that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has become a French plaything, Ms. Christine Lagarde, the organisation’s managing director, has announced her candidature for a fresh tenure, as the present one terminates July 5, 2016.

Using the platform of the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, the IMF boss on Friday disclosed that she has the backing of many key countries, including Germany, Britain and China. She is expected to join other contestants for the top job. According to IMF executive board member, Aleksei Mozhin, the board is expected to complete the selection process by early March.

“The Executive Board has adopted an open, merit-based and transparent process for the selection of the managing director, similar to the one used in the previous round. A Fund governor or executive director may nominate individuals. Like we did in 2011, we aim to reach a decision by consensus,” Mozhin said in a statement.

Lagarde, who for the second time under her first tenure, was in Nigeria two weeks ago, is hugely popular among international leaders. She was also in Cameroon in what many see as steady growing concern by the Fund for Africa.

At the IMF-World Bank yearly meeting held in Lima, Peru, last October, Lagarde told The Guardian that she was prepared to serve another term, but stressed that it was up to the Fund’s members to decide. So far, no challengers have emerged for the top IMF job.

Since 1946, when the Fund was created, there have been 11 managing directors, five of which are French nationals. Measured by duration, the French have held the post for 44 of the 69 years it has been in existence.

But beyond the filial criticism, Lagarde’s first tenure must be music to many ears following moral crisis that trailed her predecessor, Mr. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who was engulfed in allegation of sexual misconduct in July 2011. It is to Lagarde’s credit that the Fund was successfully pulled out of the brink. Significantly, under Lagarde, the IMF also ensured that many European countries did not follow in the economic debacle that almost obliterated Greece. The Fund played significant roles in stabilising Greek’s economy in the face of global economic challenges, leading to extended loan programmes, and the Chinese Yuan was added to the Fund’s benchmark currency basket.

Under Lagarde, the Fund also won the US Congress approval of a landmark 2010 reform programme that shifted more voting power to China and other key emerging markets.

However, a French court in December ordered the IMF boss to face trial for alleged negligence over her role in a payout of some 400 million Euros ($434 million) to businessman, Bernard Tapie, when she served as France’s finance minister.
Lagarde has vowed to appeal the trial order and has said she acted in the best interests of the French State and in full compliance with the law.