India's Dalveer Bhandari was re - elected to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Tuesday with more than two - thirds of the UN members backing him, forcing Britain in withdraw its candidate amidst high drama in the hard -fought race to the world court.Bhandari received 183 of the 193 votes in the General Assembly and security Council to fill the final vacancy on the Hague -based ICJ. This was after separate but simultaneous election were held at the UN headquarters.
Bhandari , 70 was declared re- elected for a freash nine - year term at ICJ after Britain withdrew its candidate Christopher Greenwood from the race about an hour before the scheduled voting. According to observers, Bhandari's Victory sent a strong message to leading powers about the winds of change in the would and underscored the point that India is now a force to reckon with.
Soon after the election results were announced , India's Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin was congratulated by representatives of other Countries on the floor of the General Assembly , in the previous 11 rounds of voting , Bhandari consistently polled nearly two thirds of the members of the General Assembly . with Bhandari's election , Britain will not have a judge on the world court's 15- member panel for the first time. Also for the first time in 70 years, a permanent member of the Security Council lost to a non - permanent member for a seat in ICJ.
The British move to block voting in the security Council and go for the joint consultation mechanism , which was last used some 96 years ago , also felt flat on Monday. this is because , many of the Security Council members., including some Permanent Members which were consistently supporting Britain in the secret ballot , backed off from voting in favour of the UK move to stop mext rounds of voting as this required open voting , observers said. " It is actually perhaps the biggest diplomatic victory we have in a multilateral arena , " a long time friend of India at the United Nations said.
In a a dramatic move , British Permanent Representative to the UN Mathew Rycroft wrote identical letters to the presidents of the UN General Assembly and the Security Council before the two chambers were scheduled to meet at 3 pm (local time) for the 12 th round of voting .
Rycroft said in his letter the current deadlock is unlikely to be broken by further rounds of voting and the UK has decided to with draw Green wood's nomination. " In taking this step , we have borne in mind the close relationship that the United Kingdom and India have always enjoyed and we will continue to enjoy." Rycroft said.
According to informed sources , three hours before the voting , General Assembly President Mirslav Lajcak and Italian Ambassador Sebastiano Cardi in his capacity as Security Council President for the month of November convened a consultative meeting with the Permanent Representative of the UK to the UN Rycroft and Akbaruddin.