The UN vote

From the Miami Herald: another discussion of the UN race. Even more useful than the article is a link to a Security Council document, which is worth a look if you want to know how the voting works. Combined, the article and link yield the following:

--the voting is secret. I had been reading that in the media, but never with a specific reference. It is rule 92 of the Rules of Procedure of the General Assembly.

--“informal” count puts Venezuela at 100 votes and Guatemala at 90. Last month, Guatemala claimed to have 110. These counts seem pretty meaningless, especially given the secret vote.

--Peru plans to abstain. In June, President García had said he could vote for Venezuela. He is currently in DC, however, and may be finding that the ire of the United States is not worth it at the moment, as he tries to get a free trade agreement set.

--this could take months. I had the image of delegates staying up until all hours, vote after vote, like the Vatican. I hadn’t known that the 1979 case, where Cuba and Colombia were deadlocked, and Mexico entered as a compromise choice, lasted over three months.

--consensus possibilities being floated are Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Uruguay, and Panama.