PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Subject : International Relations

Context : India will vote in support of Maldives’ Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid in the election of the President of the UNGA on June 7, a decision which will disappoint Afghanistan, which has former Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul in the running.

Concept :

• The President is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly.
• The President is a position voted for by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis.
• The presidency rotates annually between the five geographic groups: African, Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western European and other States.
• It is customary that no permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ever serves as UNGA president.
• The only countries that had a national elected as President of UNGA twice are Argentina, Chile, Ecuador and Nigeria; all the other member states had been represented only once by their nationals holding this office.
• Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit (1900 – 1990) of India served as 8th President of the UNGA in 1953. she was also First woman president of UNGA.