Krajci: Slovakia Didn't Abstain in Plenary Vote on Pandemic Agreement

Bratislava, 6 June (TASR) - Slovakia didn't abstain in the vote on the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pandemic Agreement at the plenary session of the World Health Assembly in May, as Slovak representatives initiated a vote and abstained only at an assembly committee meeting, MP Marek Krajci ('Slovakia', 'For the People', KU) stated at a press conference on Friday. Krajci pointed out that the government adopted a resolution instructing delegates to initiate the vote and added that government representatives are misleading their voters and doing the opposite of what they promise. "We've once again been made aware of the terrible hypocrisy of both [Premier] Robert Fico [Smer-SD] and, unfortunately, of Health Minister Kamil Sasko [Voice-SD], of both the Smer-SD party and the Voice-SD party. This is something that we witnessed back in the pre-election struggle, with these people constantly putting on some kind of ostentatious theatrics when the reality is often completely different. So, they are constantly deceiving and lying to their own voters, who, often deceived, vote for something that they aren't actually voting for," said Krajci. At the press conference, he then presented a video from the WHO meeting, which shows that the pandemic agreement at the organisation's plenary session was passed by consensus and that Slovakia didn't initiate a vote there. The former health minister added that the government also violated its rules of procedure when it changed the resolution instructing the Slovak delegation to vote. The resolution was passed via remote voting, not at a regular cabinet meeting. "In such a case, the prime minister should have convened a regular cabinet meeting. ... This resolution, which is now published, was in fact not adopted legally," he stated. The WHO formally adopted an international agreement on the prevention and control of pandemics at its annual meeting in Geneva in May. The approval of the agreement at the World Health Assembly was preceded the day before by a vote in Committee A of the assembly on a resolution recommending the adoption of the pandemic agreement to the Assembly. The resolution was adopted by a vote of 124 states. No country voted against, but 11 abstained, including Slovakia, Iran, Israel, Russia, Italy and Poland. am/df