An IAEA source told RIA Novosti that neither of the candidates - Japan's IAEA ambassador, Yukiya Amano, and South Africa's envoy, Abdul Samad Minty - was able to secure the two-thirds majority required to win the vote in the 35-nation board.
Amano fell short by a single vote with 22 nominations. As both Amano and Minty failed to secure a clear win the entire process will be repeated with new candidates being invited.
A nuclear watchdog source said that on Monday the IAEA will officially request that all member countries submit alternative candidates for the post with a new election taking place in June.
The term of the current IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, who has headed the agency since 1997, ends in November 2009. ElBaradei, who together with the watchdog was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005, has signaled that he will step down when his term of office ends.
The vote comes at a crucial time for the nuclear watchdog involved in stalled investigations in Iran and Syria and high-profile monitoring of North Korea's nuclear disarmament program.
In a recent report speech made to the IAEA board of governors on March 2, ElBaradei said that watchdog, charged with promoting the peaceful and safe use of nuclear technology, is continuing to monitor and verify the dismantling of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear reactor, but said that despite numerous efforts there had been no progress in investigations into Iran's nuclear activity.
