United Nations: Former Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Miguel d Escoto Brockmann is likely to become the next President of the 192-member United Nations General Assembly succeeding Ambassador Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia.

The Latin American and Caribbean Group of countries, known as GRULAC, have informed the United Nations that it has endorsed 75-year-old Brockmann's candidature for the 63rd session beginning on September 16. Ambassador Francisco Javier Arias Cardenas, the chairman of Group at UN, sent a letter last week to the current President, Srgjan Kerim, informing him of the group's decision, the spokesperson said today.

Under the principle of regional rotation, the next GA president should come from one of the countries in GRULAC. In recent years, the election of a General Assembly President has been by acclamation, with the last case of a formal vote occurring at the 46th session (1991-92), when there were three declared candidates.

The vote is taken if the group of nations from where the President is to be elected fail to reach a consensus. The election is by simple majority. Assembly rules and procedures state that a president must be elected at least three months before the new session, which in the case means before June 16.

Brockmann served as Foreign Minister of Nicaragua from July 1979 to April 1990, and in February last year he was appointed special senior adviser, with the rank of minister, for foreign policies and boundary issues to Nicaragua's current President Daniel Ortega Saavedra.

Source : PTI