An indirect presidential election was held to choose the President of the United Nations

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

on 13 June 2016 to replace Mogens Lykketoft and preside over the Seventy-first session of the United Nations General Assembly. It was the rotational turn of the Asia-Pacific Group to preside over the session. Peter Thomson was elected with 94 votes for and 90 votes against. This was the first time since 2012 that there was no consensus candidate from the regional groupings, thus invoking a secret ballot vote. His tenure begins on 13 September 2016.

Background

Though there is usually a consensus candidate from the rotational group which is scheduled to hold the post of

president of the United Nations General Assembly The president of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis. The president is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly. Election ...

, if there is no consensus candidate then a vote is held by

secret ballot The secret ballot, also known as the Australian ballot, is a voting method in which a voter's identity in an election or a referendum is anonymous. This forestalls attempts to influence the voter by intimidation, blackmailing, and potential vote ...

amongst the entire United Nations General Assembly. The election takes added import as it occurs in a year of the United Nations Secretary-General election.

Electorate

The Asia-Pacific Group is the second-largest of the

UN regional groups The United Nations Regional Groups are the geopolitical regional groups of member states of the United Nations. Originally, the UN member states were unofficially organized into five groups as an informal means of sharing the distribution of posts ...

with 53 members who are informally entitled to choose a candidate from within their group.

Candidates

Fiji's ran its former ambassador as a candidate. Peter Thomson had previously sought citizenship in Australia and New Zealand after a coup in his country but was later re-issued citizenship with a new law and took up the diplomatic posts. Cyprus nominated Andreas Mavroyiannis as a candidate. He had previously served as negotiator for talks over the Cyprus conflict and was also ambassador to the UN.

Election

Thomson won narrowly over Mavroyiannis by a vote of 94 to 90 member states, with nine abstentions.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:United Nations General Assembly presidential election, 2016 United Nations General Assembly President Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly 2016 in international relations United Nations General Assembly elections