Junta Pushes Thai Candidate For UN Top Job
Komfie Manalo - All Headline News Foreign Correspondent Bangkok, Thailand (AHN) - The ruling military junta of Thailand is bent on campaigning for Surakiart Sathirathai, deputy premier in the ousted Thai government of Thaksin Shinawatra, to become the new UN secretary general. On Monday, the junta named a 13-member panel to start the campaign for Surakiart. Junta leader General Sonthi Boonyaratglin has earlier reaffirmed the leadership's support for Surakiart's candidacy. "In order to effectively campaign and to achieve the goal, the team will be responsible for mapping out a campaign strategy," the junta said in a statement. The team would be led by Sihasak Phuangketkeow, another top official at the foreign ministry. According to an informal, secret-ballot poll, prior to the military takeover in Thailand, Surakiart was running third in position after South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon and India's Shashi Tharoor, who is currently UN Under Secretary General for Public Affairs, Five of the six declared candidates to succeed UN Secretary General Kofi Annan are from Asia. There is a growing consensus that it is now Asia's turn to assume the world body's top job in line with an unwritten rule of regional rotation.
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