Despite a worldwide media campaign, a celebrated televised debate performance and a refreshing message, Helen Clark’s bid for the United Nation’s top job could be coming to an end.
Clark is in seventh place, according to the results of an informal straw poll conducted by the Security Council and leaked last week. In a tweet, Clark said that she was “disappointed” and would be “discussing this over coming days.” Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Murray McCully says we shouldn’t count her out too soon and New Zealand, a non-permanent member on the Security Council (UNSC), will continue to support her campaign to become Secretary General.
Journalists and commentators covering the United Nations in New York have long reported that Clark was seen as the favourite by top diplomats. It was widely speculated that she could possibly get the backing of the United States, one of the five permanent members on the UNSC, due to the fact that Clark has worked hard to cut budget fat during her time as UN Development Programme administrator. It is unknown which countries on the 15-member council are supporting or not supporting Aunty Helen. In the informal straw poll she got six ‘encourage’ votes, eight ‘discourage’ votes and one ‘no opinion’ vote.
Talking on Paul Henry’s television show last week, Prime Minister John Key said, "What you've got is this block of votes that are piling up against her deliberately because they want the rotation system to be preserved and they want an Eastern European. It's not too much more complicated than that." Helen Clark falls under the Western European and other geographical categories at the United Nations. Despite some top diplomats saying they wish to see someone from Eastern Europe take over the role after Ban Ki-Moon leaves at the end of the year, a former Portuguese Prime Minister overwhelmingly won last week’s straw poll with eleven voting for him, two against and two abstaining.
In related news, Clark has been criticised for failing to uphold the rights and interests of Maori during her tenure as Prime Minister. The Maori Party, last week, said they will not endorse her campaign for Secretary General, drawing cries of ‘traitor’ from some media personalities, such as Paul Henry and Duncan Garner. Also, in New York, indigenous rights activist Tina Ngata made a submission to the UN’s Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues in which she said the top job should be occupied by someone “who understands indigenous rights and indigenous rights abuses, and is able to be a champion for them". Ngata and the Maori Party have said the 2007 ‘anti-terrorism’ raids in Urewera and the Foreshore and Seabed Act in 2005 were examples of Clark's bad record on the rights of indigenous people.