H
HagiaSophia
Guest
I have been somewhat puzzled by the recent “vote of confidence” for Kofi Annan since previous stories by members of his own staff and those close to him, depicted him as anything from a buffoon to a crook. Now I understand how the “official vote” got registered.
"…The vote by the U.N. staff was conducted in a way reminiscent of voting in the old Supreme Soviet during the Cold War.
A copy of the staff ballots e-mailed worldwide, and obtained by NewsMax, showed the employees could only vote “yes” to support Annan.
No negative option was on the ballot.
Even worse, according to several U.N. staffers, just running the cursor over the ballot’s yes box registered as a yes vote without clicking the mouse.
As a result, numerous yes votes were erroneously registered, and the U.N. refused to cancel them.
When the U.N. staff union challenged the veracity of the vote, its complaint was not circulated worldwide, like the ballot, but limited to NYC staff.
The U.N. trumpeted 3,000 yes votes, but unofficial guesstimates say more than 30,000 ballots went out.
This request for staff support came less than 18 months from the time that Annan (unsuccessfully) tried to bust the U.N.'s staff union.
The standing ovation on Wednesday by the General Assembly means little, since no formal resolution was introduced.
This comes from the same group that once gave a standing ovation to former Nicaraguan president and Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, who has since been thrown out of office and today sits in obscurity.
It also comes from the same group that has repeatedly branded Israel as racist, but has never sought to condemn any incident in which Israeli civilians have been attacked or killed.
A Russian journalist recently joked to NewsMax, “And you thought the old Soviet Union was dead?”
newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/8/150644.shtml
"…The vote by the U.N. staff was conducted in a way reminiscent of voting in the old Supreme Soviet during the Cold War.
A copy of the staff ballots e-mailed worldwide, and obtained by NewsMax, showed the employees could only vote “yes” to support Annan.
No negative option was on the ballot.
Even worse, according to several U.N. staffers, just running the cursor over the ballot’s yes box registered as a yes vote without clicking the mouse.
As a result, numerous yes votes were erroneously registered, and the U.N. refused to cancel them.
When the U.N. staff union challenged the veracity of the vote, its complaint was not circulated worldwide, like the ballot, but limited to NYC staff.
The U.N. trumpeted 3,000 yes votes, but unofficial guesstimates say more than 30,000 ballots went out.
This request for staff support came less than 18 months from the time that Annan (unsuccessfully) tried to bust the U.N.'s staff union.
The standing ovation on Wednesday by the General Assembly means little, since no formal resolution was introduced.
This comes from the same group that once gave a standing ovation to former Nicaraguan president and Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega, who has since been thrown out of office and today sits in obscurity.
It also comes from the same group that has repeatedly branded Israel as racist, but has never sought to condemn any incident in which Israeli civilians have been attacked or killed.
A Russian journalist recently joked to NewsMax, “And you thought the old Soviet Union was dead?”
newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/12/8/150644.shtml
