Guangzhou: The vote at the plenary meeting of the Kimberley Process (KP) in Guangzhou, China, which ended yesterday for the country to serve as Vice Chair for 2015 ended in deadlock.

With Angola set to become Chair on January 1, Dubai and Australia were the candidates for the position of Vice Chair.

A source at the meeting said that among those voting in favor of Dubai were Russia, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and the DRC while the United States, Canada, Israel and Botswana were among the countries in favor of Australia. The European Union, India, China and Angola abstained.

Due to the strength of opposition in both camps to the other’s candidacy, and as a result of the KP’s consensus-based decision-making system, it was not possible to reach a decision regarding the Vice-Chair. There was no other candidate on the ballot.

The need for consensus means that an abstention by opponents is enough to allow a decision to be made, but the ‘no’ votes cast against both Dubai’s and Australia’s candidacy made that impossible.

It is the first time in the 13-year history of the KP that members have not been able to agree on a candidate to serve as Vice-Chair.