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Election Commission, Congress Clash On Voter Turnout Figures

The Election Commission of India accused Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge of attempting to disrupt free and fair polls through his letter to INDIA bloc leaders regarding voter turnout data. Kharge alleged discrepancies in the data and criticized the Commissionโ€™s credibility. The opposition party called the Commissionโ€™s response regrettable.

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UN General Assembly Supports Palestinian Membership Bid

Zaina Afzal Kutty

In a significant symbolic vote on Friday, the United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly backed a Palestinian bid to become a full UN member state, recognizing it as qualified to join and recommending that the Security Council โ€œreconsider the matter favourably.โ€

The 193-member Assembly adopted the resolution with 143 votes in favour, nine against, including the United States and Israel, and 25 abstentions. While the resolution does not automatically confer full UN membership, it represents a powerful global endorsement of Palestinian statehood aspirations.

โ€œWe want peace, freedom,โ€ said Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour ahead of the vote. โ€œA yes vote is a vote for Palestinian existence; it is not against any state. It is an investment in peace.โ€

The resolution โ€œdetermines that the State of Palestineโ€ฆshould therefore be admitted to membershipโ€ and recommends the Security Council, which must first approve any membership bid, revisit the matter positively. However, the US has vowed to veto any Palestinian membership application, in line with its position that the path to statehood must come through direct negotiations with Israel.

The Palestinian push for full UN membership comes amid heightened tensions with Israel. A months-long conflict raged between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza through October while Israel continued its expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the UN deems illegal.

Israel fiercely opposed the resolution, with its UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan accusing the General Assembly of โ€œshreddingโ€ the UN Charter by potentially admitting a non-peace-loving party. Erdan symbolically shredded a copy of the Charter at the podium, declaring, โ€œShame on you.โ€

The ambassador warned that if the measure is approved, the US is expected to cut funding to the UN and its bodies under American laws prohibiting funding entities that grant full membership to groups lacking โ€œinternationally recognized attributesโ€ of statehood.

The Palestinian UN mission argued the resolutionโ€™s adoption would โ€œconstitute a clear reaffirmation of supportโ€ฆfor the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State.โ€ Palestinians seek an independent state in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip, territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 war.

While holding limited self-rule in the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority was ousted from Gaza in 2007 by the militant group Hamas, which has a charter calling for Israelโ€™s destruction. The UN has long endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on the 1967 lines.

Despite the symbolic victory, the path to full UN membership remains blocked without Security Council approval. But the lopsided General Assembly vote underscores the widespread global support for Palestinian ambitions and increasing impatience with the moribund peace process.

The resolution gives the Palestinians some additional prerogatives, like a designated seat at the UN from September 2024. However, the real prize โ€“ a UN member state โ€“ remains elusive without consensus among the Security Councilโ€™s permanent members.

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