India votes against Russian demand seeking secret ballot

New Delhi: India along with Brazil voted in favour of a procedural vote called by Albania to have an open vote instead of Russia's demand for a secret ballot on a draft resolution on Ukraine referendum.

While India voted 'Yes', 24 countries (including China, Iran and Russia) did not cast their votes. While several African countries and some Central Asian states voted against, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Oman among others abstained. A number of other states from various continents did not vote. The total number of UNGA members who did not favour open vote in some form or other was over 80.

The open or public vote in UNGA is scheduled for October 12. Sources told ET that India's position on procedural votes in the UN on Ukraine issue and Russia was consistent but referred to the fact that over 80 countries had a different view. India earlier too voted yes in a procedural vote on the Russian proposal. This pattern may be repeated when the voting happens on Wednesday, experts on UN affairs pointed out.

After the motion to hold a recorded vote was adopted, Russia appealed against the ruling of the president of the general assembly. A recorded vote on Russia's appeal was held and India was among the 100 nations who voted against the challenge made by Moscow. Russia then sought reconsideration of the decision to adopt the motion submitted by Albania for a recorded vote.

Russia's permanent representative Vassily Nebenzia said the UN membership had "become witnesses to an outrageous fraud in which the president of the general assembly, unfortunately, played a key role".

"We were not given the floor to make a point of order (the indicator light at our seat is still on), our statement was distorted, and now UN member states are being robbed of their right to express their opinion freely. "This is an unprecedented manipulation undermining the authority of the General Assembly and the United Nations as a whole. Of course, in such circumstances we opted to not take part in the vote," he said.

India last month abstained while Russia vetoed a draft UN Security Council resolution tabled by the US and Albania to condemn Moscow's referendum in Ukraine.