Jagjit Pavadia Re-Elected to UN International Narcotics Control Board, Defeats Chinese Candidate Hao Wei
Pavadia polled 44 votes on Tuesday in the first round of voting in the 54-member UN Economic and Social Council Council. A total of 15 candidates were in fray for the five seats up for election this year.
New York, May 8: Indian diplomat Jagjit Pavadia has been re-elected to the United Nation's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) with the highest number of votes. She succeeded in defeating her closes Chinese rival Hao Wei. On her win, India's permanent representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, expressed gratitude to his counterparts who went in favour of New Delhi's nominee.
Pavadia polled 44 votes on Tuesday in the first round of voting in the 54-member UN Economic and Social Council Council. A total of 15 candidates were in fray for the five seats up for election this year. Pakistan Coast Guards Seize Narcotics Worth Over $24 Million in Balochistan Province
The defeat of China's Hao Wei in his bid for re-election bid was glaring because of Beijing's strong campaign backed by its Yuan diplomacy across the developing countries. He got only 22 votes in the first round and 19 in the second. A minimum of 28 votes were required for election.
Here's What Syed Akbaruddin Tweeted:
Only two other candidates, Jallal Toufiq of Morocco and Cesar Tomas Arce Rivas of Paraguay received more than the minimum votes needed for election in the first round and Bernard Leroy of France and Viviana Manrique Zuluaga of Colombia were elected in the next round. They will begin their term on March 2, next year.
The next big election where India is fielding a candidate is for the Food and Agriculture Organisation. Ramesh Chand, a member of the NITI Aayog, will face four other candidates at the FAO Conference in Rome next month to succeed Jose Graziano da Silva.
India's UN Mission, which is lobbying in New York among the member countries to for his election, recently hosted a luncheon here in his honour.
A member of the Indian Revenue Service, Pavadia is a former Narcotics Commissioner of India. She was elected to the INCB in 2014 for her first five-year term.
She was the First Vice-President of the Board in 2016 and Chair of the Standing Committee on Estimates in 2015 and 2017.
The Vienna-headquartered INCB has quasi-judicial powers to monitor the implementation of the UN's international drug control conventions.
The INCB, while ensuring that adequate supplies of narcotics are available for medical and scientific purposes while combating their diversion as well as the illicit drugs manufacture and trafficking.
(With IANS inputs)
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 08, 2019 10:13 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).