By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, November 6 -- 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 morning. Each body had to select five judges -- the same five judges.
As the voting moved past noon, two candidates remained on the cusp in both chambers: Argentina's Susana Ruiz Cerutti and Jamaica's Patrick Lipton Robinson.
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.
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.
