Ecuador’s FM elected Prez 73rd UNGA session
United Nations, June 5: Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa Garces was on Tuesday elected the President of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, becoming only the fourth women to lead the world body in its seven decades long history. Garces joins the small list of female assembly presidents. Vijaya
Lakshmi Pandit, veteran Indian diplomat and sister of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, was the first woman to be elected President of the General Assembly in as early as 1953.
Later, Angie Elisabeth Brooks of Liberia was elected president in 1969 and Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa of Bahrain in 2006.
Garces will succeed Miroslav Lajcak, who is Slovakia’s foreign minister, as president of the world body for a year, starting September this year when the new General Assembly session will commence.
The President of the 73rd session of the General Assembly had to be elected from the Latin American and Caribbean Group, following the principle of geographical rotation.
Normally, the regional groups nominate a single candidate who is then elected by acclamation but since Latin Americans countries could not find consensus on any single candidate, elections were held to choose between Ambassador Mary Elizabeth Flores Flake, Permanent Representative of Honduras to the United Nations and Garces.