Nepal's candidate for the presidency of UNGA, Kul Chandra Gautam got defeated by Qatari candidate Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser at a voting in UN headquarters, New York on Friday. The number of votes each candidate received was not made public as per the understanding of group nations.
Qatari candidate Nasser, also the permanent representative of Qatar to the UN, emerged strong as all countries of the Arab region backed him.
Although Nepal had announced candidacy for the post of president for the 66th UNGA back in 2001, it picked Gautam as the candidate only six months ago. Gautam is a former Under Secretary General at the UN.
From the South Asian region, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan have become presidents of UNGA in the past.
According to the new system, the Asian region gets turn to preside over the UNGA every five years. The other Asian countries which have presided over the UNGA in the past are Bahrain, South Korea, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Iraq.
Generally, the president of general assembly is chosen unanimously. This is probably the first time a voting took place for the post of UNGA president in the history of UN