At
UN,
Power of
Secret Ballot
Shown in Low
Saudi Vote, US
Said to Face
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 11 --
The only
contested race
for the UN
Human
Rights Council
on November 12
is in the
Western
European and
Other
Group, among
the US,
Sweden,
Germany,
Greece and
Ireland.
Significantly,
it will be a
secret ballot.
Friday
night
between the UN
and the East
River, in its
Ambassadors
River
View tent,
several
African
Permanent
Representatives
told Inner
City
Press that the
secret ballot
makes all the
difference.
As one
example, they
said Saudi
Arabia always
gets less
support when
it's a
secret ballot
than when, for
example on
Syria, it is
public.
When
it's second,
one said, you
find out what
people think.
This Permanent
Representative
predicted a
surprisingly
low level of
support for
the
United States,
"even after
Obama's
re-election."
Click
here for
when Inner
City Press asked US'
Harold Koh
about drone
use.
There
was also much
discussion, on
Friday
evening, of
Eritrea's win
for the
Advisory
Committee on
Administrative
and Budgetary
Questions
earlier
in the day. To
some, it
showed the
remaining
power of an
African
Union
endorsement
(even though
also AU
endorsed Benin
dropped out
after the
first of two
rounds.) It
was said that
even Eritrea's
neighbors
Ethiopia and
Djibouti voted
for the
Eritrean
candidate, Tesfa
Alem Seyoum.
Others
said
that the
result left
Africa without
seniority and
experience on
ACABQ. This
was expressed,
not only but
primarily, but
SADC and West
African /
Francophone
Ambassadors.
When Benin
dropped out,
the
Francophone
vote shifted
to Senegal,
whose
candidate
Babou Sene
beat out the
incumbent
chairman from
Botswana, Collen
Kelapile, and
the
"carpet-bagging"
candidate from
Kenya. And so
it goes at the
UN.
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