Nepal loses bid for UNGA presidency

KATHMANDU, Feb 26: Qatar defeated Nepal in the race for the president of UN General Assembly, during a secret voting of Asia Group -- a loose alliance of Asian countries in the UN -- in New York on Friday.



"... We lost narrowly in the PGA (presidency of the General Assembly) election," said Nepal´s candidate for the post in a note via email to Republica last Friday night. [break]



As it could not secure enough votes to be elected from the group, Nepal withdrew nomination of Gautam for the coveted post, leaving the field for Qatar´s Ambassador to the UN Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, according to a source at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.



Now the UN General Assembly meeting in June will endorse Al-Nassir´s nomination from Asia as president of the 66th session of the UNGA.



The candidate for the post is generally elected unanimously. This is the first time in the UN history that a candidate has been chosen through voting to represent a region for the post.



As per the understanding in the group before voting, the outcome of the voting was not made public officially. However, it was shared with members of the group, including Nepal, according to a source at the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the UN.



This is a continuation of Nepal´s poor diplomacy in recent years. In recent years, Nepal has not been able to be elected in different UN bodies.



Nepal and Qatar have filed nominations for the presidency as it is the turn of Asia to head the UNGA, from September 2011-2012 September. This is the first time Nepal had filed its candidacy for the coveted UN post that has no executive power.



The UN General Assembly presidency rotates among five geographic groups - African, Asian, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean and Western European and other states.



Though Nepal had fielded its candidacy for the post in 2000, it picked Gautam as its candidate only six months ago. To boost its presidency, Nepal had also withdrawn its candidacy from the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and UN´s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and the International Law Commission.

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