By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, June 22 -- After Qatar was appointed to head the UN General Assembly starting in September, winning candidate Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser came to take questions from the media.
Inner City Press asked him about reports that when he faced off with Nepal earlier this year, many countries which had committed to Nepal to vote for them mysteriously didn't once the Asia Group secret ballot was taken.
“I'm very surprised to hear this questions,” Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser said. He said yes, there had been a secret ballot. If you don't think it was fair, he told Inner City Press, “ask Fiji,” whose ambassador was head of the Asia Group at the time.
The question, though, is not that surprising. Not only has evidence been found that Qatar's Bin Hammam was buying votes to run for the president of FIFA against Sepp Blatter (and by implication at least to some, to buy the 2022 World Cup awarded to Qatar despite not only its size but even more its heat) -- even in this UN race, there's talk of jobs in the incoming PGA office being offered in exchange for votes.
This is becoming more and more of a pattern at the UN.
In the Secretariat, officials from some countries are allowed to stay on past what was said to be the five year limit in the same post. Inner City Press began asking Ban's spokesman Martin Nesirky about some of these cases at Wednesday's noon briefing. Nesirky said he wouldn't discuss particular officials' contracts.
Inner City Press asked Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser for his view of the request by many states, recently most vocally Mexico, that the General Assembly be in charge of choosing the Secretary General, not the Security Council. Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser said that there have been a lot of debates about this, that nothing is resolved. Here's hoping something is accomplished during his time. We'll be watching.
