Morocco won a vote on Wednesday to lead the United Nations Human Rights Council after a heated showdown with South Africa, which said Rabat's human rights record made it unfit to preside over the body, Ednews reports citing Reuters.

The Moroccan candidate, Ambassador Omar Zniber, received 30 votes, and his South African opponent, Ambassador Mxolisi Nkosi, secured 17 in a secret ballot in Geneva.

Prior to the vote, Nkosi told Reuters that Morocco was the "antithesis of what the council stands for" and said the country's election would undermine the body's credibility.

Morocco, in turn, accused South Africa and some other African states of undermining its efforts to hold the position, a prestigious but mostly symbolic post.

Rights groups say Morocco's new role should prompt it to safeguard human rights at the highest level.

"In particular, Morocco must refrain from intimidating or carrying out reprisals against human rights defenders engaging with the U.N.," said Tess McEvoy, the Co-Director of the New York office of the International Service for Human Rights advocacy group.

The U.N. Human Rights Council, which convenes several times a year, is the only intergovernmental global body designed to protect human rights worldwide. It can increase scrutiny of countries' human rights records and authorise probes.