Members of the International Telecommunication Union have elected Hamadoun Touré of Mali as the organisation's new secretary-general by a majority 95 of 155 votes.

He beat Mathias Kurth of Germany into second place after three rounds of voting at the organisation's 17th annual Plenipotentiary Conference in Turkey.

Touré said his two main goals as secretary-general were to eliminate the digital divide and make cyberspace more secure. After the vote he pledged to work with "transparency, objectivity and vigour" during his tenure.

He has already served two terms of office for the ITU. In 1998 he was elected to the head of the Telecommunication Development Bureau, a position he held for two full terms. Prior to this he was director-general, Africa, of ICO Global Communications.

A new deputy secretary-general was also elected. Houlin Zhao of China won the position in the first round taking 98 of the 155 votes. Carlos Sánchez of Spain took 34 votes, and T Ayhan Beydoğan of Turkey took 28. ®

Related stories

• ITU allocates post 2015 frequencies (21 November 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/11/21/wrc_07/

• ITU to focus on ICT opportunities for young people (18 May 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/05/18/itu_young_people/

• New ITU head has no ambitions to run internet (17 January 2007)

  https://www.theregister.com/2007/01/17/itu_head_wont_run_internet/

• The gossip issue (2 November 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/11/02/igd_blog_wed/

• Net forum produces anti-spam plan (1 November 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/11/01/oecd_anti_spam/

• Internet forum promises democracy to the masses (31 October 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/10/31/igf_day_one/

• Authorities get on top of spam Down Under (28 March 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/03/28/aussie_authorities_target_spam/

• Date set for global net body's first meeting (17 March 2006)

  https://www.theregister.com/2006/03/17/igf_date_set/