By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 6, updated -- In the archaic system by which International Court of Justice judges are elected, the UN Security Council and General Assembly voted again and again on Thursday. Each body had to select five judges -- the same five judges.
By day's end, only four judges were elected, with as Inner City Press predicted midday a battle between candidates from Jamaica and Argentina set to continue on November 7 and perhaps beyond.
Winning ICJ judge positions were Kirill Gevorgian of Russia, with a perfect 15 votes in the Council's final round of the day, Joan E. Donoghue of the US and Mohamed Bennouna of Morocco, both with 14, and James Richard Crawford of Australia with 12.
Winning ICJ judge positions were Kirill Gevorgian of Russia, with a perfect 15 votes in the Council's final round of the day, Joan E. Donoghue of the US and Mohamed Bennouna of Morocco, both with 14, and James Richard Crawford of Australia with 12.
In the Security Council, Argentina's Susana Ruiz Cerutti got just enough votes with nine, and Jamaica's Patrick Lipton Robinson did not, with seven.
But in the General Assembly, Jamaica's Robinson with 141 led Argentina's Ruiz Cerutti with 108. The vote, Security Council president Gary Qiunlan said, would continue on November 7.
In the hall diplomats from the General Assembly continued to talk up Jamaica, saying the African Group has a special relationship with CARICOM, and talking about the Commonwealth. (Want to guess where the UK comes down in this one?)
Throughout the day, Inner City Press jogged back and forth between the Council and Assembly chambers, as did for example the Jamaican Deputy Permanent Representative, and when the two bodies broke for lunch, the following story emerged.
A number of African Permanent Representatives said, it should be Jamaica. They asked, But will the Security Council go its own way?
Inner City Press has heard Susana Ruiz Cerutti speak, and she seems like a good candidate. And Argentina ran a more transparent than usual month atop the Security Council, and has big proposals for example on sovereign debt restructuring.
But how will this stand-off be resolved? Why did the candidates from the DR Congo and Madagascar get so few votes? The latter dropped out, the former was urged to. But until the Security Council agrees with the GA, the election is not finished.
Update of 4:10 pm:
On ICJ in GA, again more than five candidates got more than the required 97 votes. But Jamaica's candidate got 141 (up from 135), Argentina's only 116 (down from 134)
Update of 4:50 pm
On ICJ in UNGA, again more than 5 got more than 97. But Jamaica 138 (still up from 136), Argentine 108 (down from 116)
Inner City Press covered the more than 30 day stand-off in 2011 between candidates from Sierra Leone and Uganda, with the latter winning. At least they are voting - the new Free UN Coalition for Access has noted that the correspondents (or now censors') association UNCA has entirely non-competitive annointments, this time with the return of the censor in chief. Click here for that, and watch this site.
