Elections take place in June for participant (staff) representatives to the UN Staff Pension Committee and Pension Board. Yet while the UN is supposed to set the standards when it comes to organizing elections around the world, these elections appear rigged from the start.
These elections are usually organized and financed by staff unions. This year the UN administration announced it would organize them without consulting staff unions.
The Assistant Secretary-General (ASG) for Human Resources Management, who also happens to be the Chair of the board and a representative of the Secretary-General on the Board, established the polling officers and set the rules, creating a conflict of interest in what is supposed to be a tripartite system.
It should be recalled that the ASG has a bone to pick with several of the incumbents and previously denounced them to the General Assembly. https://www.passblue.com/2020/
Yesterday the polling officers disseminated “rules on campaigning” (below). Unsurprisingly these appear to have been designed to exclude the same incumbents from participating, just as the ASG might have wanted.
Two of the incumbents happen to be pension fund staff.
Let’s recall that for years the fund management and Board tried to block those two staff from being on the Board, afraid of what they would reveal about the fund’s inner workings. These efforts were rightly rebuffed by the UN Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) and the General Assembly.
So this time, instead of attempts to block them legally, the strategy seems to be for the polling officers to make it difficult for fund staff to run for election by not allowing them to use their computers, and presumably their email accounts, while other candidates face no such restriction.
Also, campaigning during the election period is not allowed. That’s unheard of in any election since get-out-the-vote is an essential part of any campaign.
What does “offensive or defamatory content about any other candidate or group” mean? What “groups” are meant here? Who decides what is offensive or defamatory? If a candidate criticizes the operations of the fund, using the knowledge they have, will they be immediately disqualified, as the polling officers promise to do?
The polling officers appear to be taking it upon themselves to be arbitration committee and observers combined. Where’s the independent body to arbitrate these clear conflicts of interest?
The Secretary-General devotes a lot of time calling on developing countries to hold free, fair and inclusive elections. But with the UN itself holding rigged votes, does the UN retain any credibility on this front?
RULES ON CAMPAIGNING
· Candidates may use social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) if they so wish during the campaign period.
· Candidates may hold a virtual debate on the platform of their choice. The Polling Officers will not participate in the preparation of such a debate, or in the debate itself, but reserve the right to observe it like any other staff member.
· Candidates will be immediately disqualified from the election for the following infractions:
o Dissemination of defamatory or offensive content about any other candidate or group.
o Abuse of authority for campaigning or self-promotion purposes, including but not limited to intimidation or coercion.
o Use of Pension Fund facilities, computers, mailing lists or broadcasts for campaigning purposes.
· All campaigning activity must cease once the election period has begun.
· Any staff member who has reasonable cause or evidence indicating that a candidate is not observing the rules of the election is encouraged to notify the polling officers at the following address: UNSPCpollingofficers@un.org.
· The Polling Officers, being independently responsible for organizing and conducting elections and publishing its results, retain the sole authority to decide whether an infraction of the above rules has occurred and whether a candidate will be disqualified.
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