MOMENTUM LIES WITH INDIA IN ICJ ELECTION, SAYS UN REPRESENTATIVE

With nearly two-thirds of members of the UN General Assembly supporting India’s Dalveer Bhandari in the election to the International Court of Justice, India has strongly quelled rumours about withdrawing from the race, reports PTI.

India has also ruled out any compromise asserting that the candidate who enjoys overwhelming support of the General Assembly members can be the only legitimate candidate to go through.

In the straight contest between the remaining two individual judges Bhandari and Britain’s Christopher Greenwood Justice Bhandari, 70, has consistently received significantly more votes, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin said.

The gap between him and the other candidate has been growing and in the last round was 53 votes among the general membership, Akbaruddin told representatives from more than 160 countries at a reception hosted for Bhandari at the UN headquarters here.

“What happens in such circumstances? The precedent is clear. As is expected in the 21st century, the candidate who enjoys the overwhelming support of the General Assembly membership has always been selected as the only legitimate candidate to go through. As recently as three years ago, we had exactly the similar parallel...the pattern is exact.

“In fact, if someone looks at the voting, it shows the will of the General Assembly rightly prevail in the ICJ election,” he added.

Observing that the General Assembly reflects the spirit of “we the people”, the top Indian diplomat said all the contests in the past have ended by taking cognisance of the sentiment and spirit that the universal membership of the General Assembly has reflected.

“We see the election today at a tipping point. It is now no longer about an individual.. It is also no longer about the representative or a nominee of a country. It is now about whether the outcome of the election to the world court - the International Court of Justice - reflects the sentiment of the peoples of the world. The only gauge of that is the General Assembly of the United Nations,” he asserted.

“We have a choice of either acknowledging the spirit of our times and ending this process honourably or trying to stem the democratic drift of inclusivism,” he said.

India has ruled out any compromise asserting that Dalveer Bhandari (in pic) who enjoys overwhelming support of the UNGA members can be the only legitimate candidate to go through