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Miscount at Human Rights Council election?
Sunday, 1 June 2008 - 11:43 AM SL Time
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Was their a miscount in the recent elections to the UN s Human Rights Council where Sri Lanka, despite considerable effort and expenditure, could not get re-elected to an Asian seat in the face of an aggressive campaign on the country s human rights records including negative statements from three Nobel laureates?
This possibility was raised at the UN s noon briefing last Thursday, a New York-based journalist told the Sunday Island.
But the UN s Deputy Spokesperson knew nothing about it. ``This is the first I have heard of it. Let me look into it and get back to you, he replied.
The latest word on the subject was that there had been some bungling by the UN Secretariat that had not affected the eventual result.
An Asian diplomat said: ``Its a non issue now . bit of bungling by the UN secretariat which had no effect on the results. The Spaniards, who lost the elections, were trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill ``
The questions was: ``On elections, there is a letter from the President of the General Assembly, Mr. Kerim, saying that the voting for the Human Rights Council He said that the Secretariat so I am assuming that is the Secretariat informed him of errors. Instead of 10 abstentions there was one, and instead of 189 votes, there were 182. So there are sort of .big problems with the counting of votes last week. Can you explain .Is that the Secretariat s role to count votes?
It wasn t only the UN Deputy Spokesperson who had heard that for the first time. The Foreign Ministry in Colombo also heard for the first time when a query in regard to the UN s noon briefing question was referred to it by this newspaper.
He said that they had not heard about it and will certainly inquire. A senior official wondered that if there was a miscount, whether it would have affected Sri Lanka s chances.
At last week s meeting between President Mahinda Rajapaksa and editors and heads of media institutions, Foreign Minister Bogollagama, now in Singapore, gave detailed figures to demonstrate that the ``operation was successful although the patient had died in the sense that Sri Lanka failed to retain its HRC seat.
There was no word from our New York source, whether the UN spokesperson s office had got back with an answer to the question that was fired.
``If there had been mistakes that had been officially admitted, it could have been a big story, one source said.
The following were the voting figures at the HRC election:
African states (4 seats)
Burkina Faso 180
Gabon 178
Ghana 181
Zambia 182
Mali 2
Kenya 2
Gambia 1
Benin 1
Asian states (4 seats)
Bahrain 142
Japan 155
Pakistan 114
Republic of Korea 139
Sri Lanka 101
Timor-Leste 92
Eastern European states (2 seats)
Slovakia 135
Ukraine 125
Serbia 93
Czech Republic 9
Latin America and Caribbean states (3 seats)
Argentina 172
Brazil 175
Chile 176
Venezuela 3
Ecuador 1
Western European and Other states (2 seats)
France 123
UK 120
Spain 119
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AnuD
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 1 Jun 2008 05:36:54 GMT Report for Abuse
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I heard, Sri lanka had enough votes but lost on a technicality.
Sri Lankan media are very negative. Anti-govt media always bash the govt and they never help Sri lanka because that would help the govt.
What Sri lankan media doing is mostly against the Sri lankans more than the govt.
GOSL need to find out some pro-LTTE groups were there to bungle up counting.
Edited By - AnuD - 1 Jun 2008 05:39:51 GMT |
Gaja
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 1 Jun 2008 06:07:39 GMT Report for Abuse
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GOSL need to find out some pro-LTTE groups were there to bungle up counting
The ways of Natural Justice are complex. Sometimes genuine errors are used to uphold the Truth. |
Magnum357
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 1 Jun 2008 14:07:31 GMT Report for Abuse
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AnuD
This is not an election where the country securing a majority of votes out of the 192 gets elected. It's a scenario where the countries with the highest numbers of votes within a region get elected to the limited number of seats allocated to that particular region of that country according to the order of the highest number of votes secured by each country.
Sri Lanka has 101 out of the 192 votes and is clearly a majority BUT there are 4 other countries within the Asian region which have secured more votes than Sri Lanka and are elegible to fill the seats. So those countries get the seats while Sri Lanka does not.
Mahinda Samarasinghe is also on record, after the elections, saying that the non election does not matter much to Sri Lanka. However before the elections the approach and efforts taken by MS and the govt did not suggest so! Sour grapes?
Edited By - Magnum357 - 1 Jun 2008 14:21:12 GMT |
Magnum357
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1 Jun 2008 14:43:42 GMT Report for Abuse
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Mr.Brown,
saranselvaraj is BACK as the mafroook virus. Better 'clean' up before it spreads to other threads!
Edited By - Magnum357 - 1 Jun 2008 15:07:35 GMT |
Sintamus
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 1 Jun 2008 16:01:36 GMT Report for Abuse
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The real question is Can a country that have the worst HR violations as listed by the NGOs and IC be a member of the HR Council? In other words can a wolf represent the guardians of lambs?
In big power politics bribing or threatening fellow countries tolerated. Is it right or healthy for the UN body? |
AnuD
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1 Jun 2008 18:42:44 GMT Report for Abuse
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The ways of Natural Justice are complex. Sometimes genuine errors are used to uphold the Truth.
Some hidden truth. |
Gaja
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2 Jun 2008 01:46:49 GMT Report for Abuse
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AnuD,
Some hidden truth.
Yes - when it is needed and not when it is desired
love
gaja |
Gaja
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2 Jun 2008 02:13:17 GMT Report for Abuse
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Vishnu,
When it is a true need - the personality does not matter. It is common to call. Desires have different forms - not needs
love
gaja |
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