{{The 193 members of the United Nations sitting in New York on Wednesday afternoon unanimously elected by acclamation Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Kutesa as the next President of the UN General Assembly.}}
He will chair the world body’s 69th session due in September, this year.
The unanimous vote took place shortly after 3p.m. US eastern time (10p.m. Ugandan time).
In a statement, Uganda’s Foreign Affairs ministry Spokesman Fred Opolot said Kutesa has chosen “Delivering on and Implementing a Transformative Post-2015 Development Agenda” as the theme for his one-year tenure that begins on September 16.
The minister in his acceptance speech shortly after the vote thanked all member states, in particular Africa, for the “trust and confidence bestowed upon me and Uganda.”
He drew on the inspirational 1963 speech to the UN General Assembly by former US President, John F. Kennedy, to underscore his resolve to have the UN prioritise elimination of hunger, poverty and illiteracy — dovetailing at home with yet unfulfilled aspirations of Uganda’s immediate post-independence leaders.
“Never before has man had such capacity to control his own environment, to end thirst and hunger, to conquer poverty and disease, to banish illiteracy and massive human misery. We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world – or to make it the last,” Mr Kutesa said, quoting Kennedy.
NV
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