Battle for ICJ seat
20/11/2017
The battle between India's nominee Dalveer Bhandari and Britain's Christopher Greenwood for a seat in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has remained deadlocked as neither candidate managed to get the requisite numbers of votes in the latest face-off. Bhandari, 70, and Greenwood are seeking re-election at the Hague-based International Court of Justice. One-third of the court's 15-member bench are elected every three years for a nine-year term, elections for which are held separately but simultaneously in the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council in New York. Four of the six candidates in the fray were elected as per the UN laws, got absolute majority in both the General Assembly and the Security Council. Ronny Abraham of France, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf of Somalia, Antonio Augusto Cancado Trindade of Brazil and Nawaf Salam of Lebanon were elected after four rounds of elections on Thursday. The UN General Assembly and the Security Council met separately to elect the remaining one candidate for the ICJ.
In each of the five rounds of elections, Greenwood of Britain received nine votes and Bhandari got five in the UN Security Council. The winner must secure 8 votes in the Security Council. Given that Britain is a Permanent member of the Security Council, Greenwood has an advantage over Bhandari. Bhandari received absolute majority in the General Assembly elections in all the five rounds. In fact, he increased his vote tally from Thursday's 115 to 121 votes in the General Assembly elections yesterday against the absolute majority number of 97. Both the General Assembly and Security Council announced to adjourn the meeting for the election to be convened at a later date. Decisions at the UN must reflect the voice of the majority of Members and cannot continue to be decided by a few states with long-held privileges.
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