TOKYO — Saima Wazed, the daughter of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has been nominated to lead the World Health Organization’s regional office for Southeast Asia, after an unusually heated race that dredged up accusations of nepotism.

“Member states voted to nominate Ms. Saima Wazed during a closed meeting,” the WHO announced Wednesday on its website. The regional office covers Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan, North Korea, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand and East Timor. The group is home to about 2 billion people, or a quarter of the world’s population.

Wazed’s nomination is due to be submitted to the WHO’s executive board in late January, before she takes up the post in New Delhi on Feb. 1, replacing India’s Poonam Khetrapal Singh after two five-year terms.

The 49-year-old Wazed, a clinical psychologist, was up against Nepali candidate Shambhu Acharya, a 65-year-old public health veteran currently serving as senior director for international cooperation at the agency’s Geneva headquarters.

Some critics questioned Wazed’s experience and the manner in which she was introduced to the world — by accompanying her mother at major international events including the Group of 20 summit in New Delhi in September. She also accompanied her mother to the BRICS summit in South Africa in August.

Letters and editorials in The Lancet medical journal questioned the “apparent nepotism” in Wazed’s nomination.

Wazed, however, firmly denied the notion that nepotism was a factor at all, telling Nikkei Asia, “I feel that any reasonable and unbiased assessment of my experience and qualifications would conclude with my suitability for the role.”

Her rival Acharya recently told Nikkei Asia in an interview that the director election was about ensuring the “neutrality” of the office.

Not long before the election, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen criticized Acharya’s record and called on Nepal to withdraw his nomination.

The two candidates struck a conciliatory tone on Wednesday, however.

On X, formerly Twitter, Wazed paid “special tribute” to Acharya, saying she hoped the region would “continue to benefit from his knowledge & experience.”

Acharya, for his part, congratulated Wazed. “As a public health leader, I would continue to work for public health and extend hands to support in anyway I can,” he wrote on X.