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By Matthew Russell Lee & sources, Exclusive

UN GATE, March 31  – Last week brought to the fore one of the most unbelievable scandals ever experienced at the UN level - pending Antonio Guterres' already begun drive to steal a second term as SG.

 This one concerns the intentional spoiling of the democratic electoral process for the Head of a UN agency. And again, it comes from UNESCO in Paris, with the candidate from Kyrgyzstan as we reported was pushed out from competing, see below. How many are being silenced by Guterres, with the collusion of those who block the circulation of now six opponents' names?

  The procedure for the nomination of the Director general of UNESCO is described here: https://en.unesco.org/executive-board/dg-candidate-2021. By his letter of December 14, 2020, the Chairman of the Executive board, Agapito MBA MOKUY, requested nominations from Member States for the DG position and set the deadline for submitting candidates at March 15, 2021.

 By the deadline of 15 March 2021, MBA MOKUY had received two nominations: the one from France - the current DG, A. Azoulay, and the one of Kyrgyzstan - A.B. Beishenaliev, Minister of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic.

  Inner City Press first reported how he was made to drop out. He contacted Inner City Press, and now this: "Almazbek Beishenaliev, said that he had voluntarily refused to run for UNESCO director: 'We have withdrawn the application. No emphasis was placed. I refused voluntarily, "said Beishenaliev. At the same time, he asked us not to publish this information.'" That says it all. And how many (more) is Guterres blocking?

 His application was submitted to the Chairman of the Executive board by official governmental letter ref: 06-2/455 dated March 11, 2021, that is to say full four days before the fixed deadline.  In a move of intellectual and institutional dishonesty, that will remain and mark this dark period for UNESCO, the Chairman of the Executive board MBA MOKUY kept this second candidacy secret from member states.

 He shared it however with the French DG Azoulay and this gave him the upper hand for negotiating and subsequently drawing a personal gain. Indeed, the Chairman is ending his mandate in few months, and in order to secure his bright future, he agreed to postpone the announcement of the candidacies under the condition that after her reelection, MBA MOKUY will get from Azoulay an ADG position at UNESCO. 

Thus, instead of announcing the two candidacies on the next day after the deadline, 16 March, as all his predecessors had done in their times, he gave France the time it needed to put paramount pressure on the government of Kyrgyzstan to promptly withdraw its candidacy.

 In the end, one week later, on March 22, 2021, the application of Mr. A.B. Beishenaliev was withdrawn by Note Verbale N° 194/3 sent to MBA MOKUY by the Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic in Paris. There were two candidates for one full week, and nobody knew about it thanks to MBA MOKUY. 

The day that followed the withdrawal of the second candidate, March 23, 2021, the Chairman of the Executive Board sent his circular letter to inform Member States that there is only one candidate for DG of UNESCO. In paragraph two of his letter, he shamelessly lied by stating to the entire world that he had received only one candidature. Letter here.  This is more than criminal. It sheds doubts about the whole procedure.

An additional charge against MBA MOKUY resides in the following fact - it has happened in the past, in the rich history of the United Nations, that a candidate was presented and then withdrawn by its government. But in this case, in his letter of March 23, Agapito MBA MOKUY should have clearly indicated that by the deadline of March 15 there were actually two candidates and that subsequently the Kyrgyz government decided to withdraw its own.  

  However, instead of playing the transparency game, he opted for the worst of the diplomatic approaches thus spoiling the whole election procedure. The explanations that MBA MOKUY will have to provide to his fellow ambassadors following the exposure by Inner City Press of this monumental scandal and the approach crafted together with the Director general to keep this affair totally secret, will do nothing but sink them both further.

 The French succeeded to eliminate the other candidacy, but at the price of joining the dictators’ club with their well-established tradition to get rid of any potential opposition. Bullying member states since the election of Azoulay in 2017 was a usual practice. With the above, that practice has been taken to a new, unreached before, political dimension. 

An outraged by those developments high official of UNESCO said to Inner City Press: “There are ways to restore the flawed procedure. First, Agapito MBA MOKUY ought to send an addendum with the two names and a note that the second candidacy has been withdrawn. Then, as a direct consequence of his unlawful deeds, MBA MOKUY must resign immediately.

The Board may then decide to extend the candidacies deadline for another few months in order to clean the current procedure from the legitimate suspicions”.  For two years now, Inner City Press is exposing the countless financial and administrative transgressions perpetrated by Azoulay and her team.

 Fraud, abuse of power, promotion of the mistress of the Head of her Cabinet Kacyanides, the detailed list of wrongdoings largely justifies the sacking of both from the organization. Another scandal that went beyond the boldest imagination was related to the team of French secret service agents accessing the UNESCO building with the approval by the Cabinet of DG Azoulay.  And now that.

This unprecedented interference in the DG selection, that is in line with the North Korean ‘democratic’ practices, will certainly raise some concerns by the big European and Nordic democracies. But will those reactions be strong enough to change the directorship of UNESCO is an open question.

 For sure, the US government must think twice before even considering rejoining UNESCO, this rotten by corruption and anti-democratic rituals organization. Watch this site.

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