The tradition of appointing a European as managing director “undermines the legitimacy” of the International Monetary Fund, the world’s largest developing countries said in an unusual joint statement on Tuesday.

The IMF executive directors for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa attacked the “obsolete unwritten convention” that the head of the fund is always a European and calling for a “truly transparent, merit-based and competitive process”.

The statement is a rare example of co-ordination by the Brics countries and marks a challenge to Europe, which is uniting behind Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, as its candidate in an effort to keep control of the IMF job.

“We are concerned with public statements made recently by high-level European officials to the effect that the the position of managing director should continue to be occupied by a European,” said the Brics representatives at the fund in Washington.

However, the Brics countries will have to find a candidate that they can all support if they are to overcome Europe’s votes. The non-European candidates who have entered the race so far are Agustín Carstens, governor of the central bank of Mexico, and Grigory Marchenko, who heads the central bank of Kazakhstan.

The Brics threw a 2007 statement by Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the Euro Group, back at him. Mr Juncker had said that “the next managing director will certainly not be a European”.

The statement also undermined a claim by the French budget minister earlier on Tuesday that China was ready to back Ms Lagarde for the managing directorship. François Baroin told Europe 1 radio “the Chinese support the candidacy of Christine Lagarde”.

Separately, it emerged that several large developing countries have not yet paid their share of an International Monetary Fund capital increase, potentially weakening their voice in the selection of a managing director for the fund.

Turkey, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan are the largest of 18 countries yet to pay their part of a $32.9bn round of funding that began in March, according to data from the fund.

A country’s votes at the fund are weighted by its share of the IMF’s “quota”. Quota subscriptions provide most of the IMF’s capital resources.

The payments will have little direct effect on the election of a managing director because they represent fewer than 0.5 per cent of total votes. There is also still time to pay before the IMF votes in June.

But they are a possible embarrassment as developing countries push to break the European stranglehold on the fund. The fund has received 95 per cent of the total capital increase since payments began in March.

Turkey’s current share of IMF quota is 0.5 per cent but that will rise to 0.61 per cent once it pays in another $419m. Turkey’s Treasury undersecretariat said its payment was not due under IMF rules until mid-June, and would be made by the due date.

Kazakhstan’s current share of IMF quota is 0.15 per cent but that will rise to 0.18 per cent once it pays in a further $98m. The fund has received 95 per cent of the total capital increase since payments began in March.

The IMF is searching for a replacement for Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who re­signed after being charged with alleged sexual assault.

“I deny in the strongest possible terms the allegations which I now face; I am confident that the truth will come out and I will be exonerated,” Mr Strauss-Kahn said in a final memo to IMF colleagues. “In the meantime, I cannot accept that the fund – and you dear colleagues – should in any way have to share my own personal nightmare. So, I had to go.”

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