France and Qatar were running neck-and-neck in the race to lead the UNESCO after a third round of voting Wednesday whittled the field down to five. Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari and France’s Audrey Azoulay — both former culture ministers — had 18 votes apiece in the battle to replace outgoing UNESCO director-general Irina Bokova, FRANCE 24 reports.

If no candidate wins an outright majority after Thursday’s fourth round, it goes to a run-off between the top two.