ACABQ
Race Might
Have Eritrea
and Kelapile,
US in ECOSOC
Clean Slate
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
November 7 --
With
presidential
elections in
the UN's Host
Country over,
attention
turns to a
more nitty
gritty, follow
the
money race,
for seats on
the UN's
Advisory
Committee on
Administrative
and Budgetary
Questions,
which produces
analysis of UN
budget
proposals.
Three
months ago
Inner City
Press first
reported on
the contest
among
candidates
from Botswana
- the
incumbent
chair of ACABQ
Collen
Kelapile -
Eritrea and
Kenya.
The
assumption was
that only one
of these three
could get in.
Kelapile
and his
supporters
argue,
rightly, that
he has
experience,
having
been
vice-chair for
two years
under the US's
Susan McClurg,
then the
last two years
as chair.
This
week, in order
to make up for
analysis time
lost during
the shutdown
of the UN by
Super Storm
Sandy, ACABQ
under Kelapile
is working
from
10 am to 2 pm,
and 3 pm to 8
or 9.
Eritrea
had
continued to
insist that it
won the
endorsement
not only of
the
African Union
but also the
"East
Africans," and
that it
gave up claims
on a vice
presidency of
the General
Assembly,
which
Kenya got. Now
Kenya is in
the running
for the ACABQ
seat.
Eritrea
is
under UN
sanctions
(though it has
contested the
work of former
sanctions
group chief
Matt Bryden);
Kelapile is
said to have
garnered
substantial
support in the
Western
European and
Other group.
From
West Africa,
candidates
from Benin and
Senegal are
running. Since
rotation and
intra-regional
deals are not
binding, some
are
predicting
that Kelapile
and Eritrea
could win.
Meanwhile
for
the November 8
ECOSOC
election, the
United States
which often
speaks out
against "clean
slates"
without
competition --
has just that.
But it faces a
more dificult
race for the
Human
Rights
Council. More
on that anon.
Watch this
site.
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