Earlier this week, Fiji's ambassador to the United Nations was elected President of the General Assembly. When he takes office in September, he will be the first from the Pacific to hold the prestigious, though largely ceremonial position. We have more from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.
After Peter Thompson's narrow win in a contested vote, Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama described his victory as a measure of Fiji's standing in the world.
Just two years ago, Fiji was something of a pariah...a military government that, despite promises, failed to hold an election for eight years after a coup lead by then Rear-Admiral Bainimarama. Over that time, he rewrote Fiji's constitution to institute one person, one vote, a principle that eliminated the special status of tribal chiefs and, for the first time, extended equal rights to Fijians of Indian origin. In 2014, Bainimarama's Fiji First party swept to victory in elections that outside monitors described as free and fair. Since then, Fiji has been reinstated by the Pacific Islands Forum and last week, Prime Minister John Key made New Zealand's first state visit since the coup. During his stay, opposition leader Ro Teimumu Kepa told him that Fiji First had established a parliamentary dictatorship behind a democratic facade, which she said the international community was regrettably eager to embrace.
Asked about Peter Thomson's run for General Assembly President, Prime Minster Key promised New Zealand's vote...but Prime Minister Bainimarama declined to support New Zealand's Helen Clark, who's among the candidates to replace Ban Ki Moon as UN Secretary General.
