By Matthew Russell Lee, Exclusive
UNITED NATIONS, December 22 -- While UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday asked the General Assembly's committee on credentials to quickly vote to replace Laurent Gbagbo's Permanent Representative to the UN Djedje with a former Gbagbo diplomat now recommended by Ouattara, the committee was deadlocked Wednesday morning.
African sources on the Credentials Committee tell Inner City Press that Russia opposed the diplomatic switch pushed by Ban Ki-moon, just as Russia questioned for days a proposed Security Council Press Statement on the Ouattara - Gbagbo electoral contest.
In the Council, Russia argued that Ban Ki-moon's envoy Choi Young-jin had overstepped his authority by certifying Ouattara as the winner, rather than certifying the electoral process.
Inner City Press asked Ban Ki-moon's acting Deputy Spokesman Farhaq Haq, after the failed Wednesday morning meeting, to comment on it. Haq acknowledged the morning meeting, but said that the Credentials Committee will meet again in the afternoon.
While the Russian Mission to the UN has not spoken on the matter, Inner City Press is told that in Committee they repeatedly said they had “no instructions.”
A source on the Committee tells Inner City Press that while things are “always” by consensus, it is possible that a vote will be called, or “forced” in the afternoon meeting. Watch this site.
Update of 1:58 pm -- Russia raised in the Security Council that the question of Cote d'Ivoire's Perm Rep is a political question that belongs in the Council, Inner City Press is told. Also that there may be a December 23 Security Council meeting on Cote d'Ivoire.
