Paul Mahoney is UK frontrunner for human rights court

European Court of Human Rights led privileged first vote for the election of British judge in Strasbourg

An insider Strasbourg leading the race to be the next judge of the United Kingdom before the European Court of Human Rights.

Paul Mahoney, 65, who was a director and secretary for over 30 years, has taken a leading position after the first ballot inconclusive.

None of the three candidates

Colombia - Mahoney, Ben Emmerson QC Raquel Agnello QC or -. Won an absolute majority of votes in the first ballot among the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Results released Tuesday showed Mahoney had 103 votes, Emmerson Agnello 61 and 45. Voting will resume on Wednesday morning when a "relative majority" simply select the winner.

• Mahoney, Oxford University-educated lawyer, he taught law at the University of London for six years before playing briefly in the bar in London in the 1970s.

has spent most of his legal career in Europe working in the administration of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where he was then Assistant Secretary from 1995 to 2005 and later first president of the European Commission Union Public Service Tribunal.

age is considered a factor against his candidacy to the European Court of Human Rights, where judges must retire at 70 - which means that Mahoney would be half Throughout his nine-year term as required by the resignation.

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