The LIMUN Eye

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Sunday 21 February 2010

Enough is Enough

By Alex Webb

It is the morning after the night before at LIMUN, and a quick trawl through the committees finds two distinct groups of people. There are those who, bleary-eyed, tenderly cosset a cup of coffee and take in the other group with a combination of bemusement and confusion, those who still look immaculate, and contrive to orate with an eloquence and perspicacity which fails to belie the events of yesterday evening.

Nonetheless, the issue of quoracy does not seem to be a major one. By ten o'clock, an informal check on seven committees found that they were all quorate on the basis of a simple majority, and only two were inquorate in the case of the need for a two-thirds majority. These figures are of course in comparison with how many delegates are sitting on each committee in total. DISEC, one of the larger committees, still only had 45 of its 86 delegates present, hindering its plan to vote on a draft resolution debated yesterday evening. It is clearly a very good turnout this morning, though, perhaps a reflection of Britain's somewhat stringent late night drinking laws, as much as everyone's self-discipline - a shock for those of you who come from countries where all-night drinking is de rigeur.

Quorum can be used as a potent weapon in the UN. Blocks of nations quite frequently walk out on votes they disagree with or threaten to do so, rendering them inquorate. In the build up to the Korean conflict of the 1950s, President Syngman Rhee arrested a number of the Korean National Assembly, leaving it inquorate and unable to vote on issues such as his introduction of martial law. Let us hope the Crisis Committee is out in full force this morning!

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