Secret Ballot: W.H.O. Chief Tedros to Be Returned Unopposed Today for Fresh Term

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a pres
FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty
Nathaniel Charles

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is set to be re-appointed Tuesday via a secret ballot – standing for the role unopposed.

The W.H.O.’s first African leader, Tedros is a career bureaucrat with no medical background but is guaranteed to return to the position he has held since 2017.

Tedros will most likely be validated through a secret ballot vote held on Tuesday the 25th of January 2022, by the W.H.O.’s executive board, followed by a confirmation in May 2022 by the 194 W.H.O. member states, France 24 reports.

This is despite widespread criticism of his tenure as head of the W.H.O.. In 2020 over a million people called for the resignation of Tedros via a petition, due to his failure to declare the “China virus outbreak as a global health emergency”, and also over the alleged undue influence China has over the Ethiopian.

BEIJING, CHINA - JANUARY 28: Tedros Adhanom, Director General of the World Health Organization, (L) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, on January 28, 2020 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Naohiko Hatta - Pool/Getty Images)

Tedros Adhanom, Director General of the World Health Organization, (L) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping before a meeting at the Great Hall of the People, on January 28, 2020 in Beijing, China. (Naohiko Hatta – Pool/Getty Images)

Tedros initially refused to declare coronavirus a global health emergency and faced accusations of spouting Communist China’s government narratives, such as trying to cover up the Chinese origins of the pandemic, and at the start of the pandemic claiming that there was “no clear evidence of human-to-human transmission”.

This pro-China approach resulted in Taro Aso the Japanese deputy prime minister and finance minister at the time rebuking the W.H.O. by saying in the Japanese Parliament that some have even started calling the World Health Organization the “Chinese Health Organization”.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump also referred to the W.H.O. under Tedros in May 2020 as a “puppet of China”.

Since this condemnation, the W.H.O. has been more critical of China such as refusing to rule out the lab leak hypothesis, which prompted China to directly attack Tedros and the W.H.O. – suggesting Tedros was being paid by anti-China forces.

This however has not stopped China from supporting Tedros’ current re-election bid.

Tedros has also faced increased criticism from his native Ethiopia accusing him of “misconduct and violation of his professional and legal responsibility”, following his comments claiming the government is restricting medication access to Tigray – his home region which is currently in the midst of a civil war.

Tedros has also been suspected of being a member of the violent and powerful communist Ethiopian political party known as the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, which some political analysts, reportedly including U.S. government officials, have listed in the Global Terrorism Database.

This interference from Tedros meant that Ethiopia blocked the African Union from backing Tedros, and they attempted to prevent Tedros from being renominated, resulting in only a handful of African nations backing the Director-General who mainly had to rely on European nations to support his re-election bid.

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