This is a retrospective explainer, pegged to the opening of this year’s United Nations General Assembly. The ballot it describes was held in 2016.
Fiji has held the presidency of the United Nations General Assembly once, and it won the job the hard way — in a contested secret ballot, by four votes. UN records date that vote to 13 June 2016, when the 193-member Assembly chose Fiji’s then permanent representative to the UN, Peter Thomson, to preside over its 71st session. The Free Press Journal reported the count as 94 votes for Thomson to 90 for Andreas Mavroyiannis of Cyprus.
The reason to revisit it now is the calendar. World leaders are again making their way to New York, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese heading to the United States for a week-long trip, SBS reported in its 18 September 2026 morning bulletin. Almost a decade after Thomson’s win, the file he said he would push from the chair — climate change and oceans — is still the file Fiji carries into the building, as our earlier report on Fiji’s delegation at the UN ahead of Pre-COP31 set out.
Key facts
- Thomson was elected president of the General Assembly’s 71st session, polling 94 votes to 90 for Mavroyiannis of Cyprus, The Free Press Journal reported. UN records place the ballot on 13 June 2016; the session ran from September 2016 to September 2017.
- Under the UN’s system of regional rotation it was the Asia-Pacific region’s turn to hold the post, and the lack of a consensus candidate sent the choice to a ballot of all 193 members, the same report said.
- He succeeded Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark, whose main achievement the outlet described as opening up the process of electing the secretary-general.
- Thomson was to oversee the Assembly’s role in choosing a successor to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in a process the outlet said would have a measure of transparency for the first time. UN records show the Assembly appointed António Guterres on 13 October 2016.
- This year, SBS reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other officials have been denied visas by US authorities ahead of the Assembly.
How the vote was won
Normally the regional group whose turn it is proposes a single candidate, The Free Press Journal reported. That did not happen, so the presidency went to a secret ballot — the exception rather than the rule for a post that is usually settled by consensus before it reaches the floor. The four-vote margin over Cyprus was, in the outlet’s description, a keenly contested election.
The report added that Mavroyiannis’ candidature was undermined by the fact that Cyprus is a member of the European Union even though it sits in the Asia Pacific Group, while Fiji is unambiguously a member of that group. On the arithmetic reported by the outlet, a shift of three votes would have reversed the outcome: in an Assembly where a Pacific island state of under a million people casts the same single vote as a permanent member of the Security Council, that is the whole point of the chamber.
What Thomson said he would push
Addressing the Assembly after the result, Thomson said his priorities would be promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals to enhance human welfare, and climate change, The Free Press Journal reported. “We bring special perspectives on climate change and on oceans issues,” he said, according to the outlet, adding that members could expect him to be vocal on them. The outlet reported that he named those files precisely because his island nation is particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels from global warming.
The same report said Thomson had previously criticised the slow pace of Security Council reform and called for greater efforts by UN members on that and other issues. If the reform process did not pass the session then ending in September, the outlet reported, he could play a pivotal role in reviving it during his presidency. It also reported that he pledged more transparency in the running of the president’s office, a promise made at a news conference in the wake of bribery allegations against a former Assembly president, John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda.
What the job actually carries
The presidency rotates annually between the UN’s regional groups and its powers are procedural rather than executive: the holder chairs the plenary, sets the tempo of debate and steers the Assembly’s part in processes that formally belong to the membership. In Thomson’s case that included the Assembly’s role in the secretary-general succession, which UN records show concluded with the appointment of Guterres on 13 October 2016 on the recommendation of the Security Council. UN records also show Thomson was appointed the secretary-general’s special envoy for the ocean in 2017, after his term in the chair ended.
Where Fiji stands at this year’s Assembly
Fiji’s presence in New York this year is not in the chair but in the corridors. Our earlier report on Fiji’s delegation at the UN ahead of Pre-COP31 recorded Ditoka joining other Pacific leaders at the UN in the run-up to Fiji’s Pre-COP31 meeting — the same climate-and-oceans brief Thomson said he would carry from the presidency, now pursued as one voice among many rather than from the podium.
The immediate test of that lobbying is money. As we reported, climate finance pledges from partners such as China have so far arrived without a dollar figure attached, which is the difference between a communiqué and a budget line.
Analysis: the economic stake behind Fiji’s climate brief
This section is this site’s own reading of the sourced material above, not a claim made by The Free Press Journal, SBS or any official cited here.
Read against Fiji’s economy, the oceans-and-climate portfolio Thomson described is not an environmental side file. Tourism arrivals, inshore and offshore fisheries, and the cost of rebuilding after cyclones all sit on the same balance sheet, and all of them are exposed to the sea-level rise the outlet reported Thomson citing. That is why the gap between a pledge of continued support and a stated figure — the gap in the China pledge we covered — matters more to Fiji’s fiscal position than any sentence in a General Assembly speech. For Fijians working in Australia and New Zealand, the same test applies to the adaptation and resilience spending that determines whether households at home need remittances to cover recovery costs.
The 2016 ballot is a reminder that Fiji’s leverage at the UN is procedural and coalition-based: it comes from votes, blocs such as the Group of 77 that The Free Press Journal reported Thomson chaired, and the seats it can occupy. It does not, on its own, come with a cheque.
Sourcing note
Two sources underpin this piece. The Free Press Journal report carries a 30 May 2019 page date and does not state the year of the vote it describes; its internal details — Lykketoft as the outgoing president, Ban Ki-moon as the serving secretary-general, ten declared candidates to succeed him — place the ballot in mid-2016, which matches UN records dating it to 13 June 2016. The SBS material is a morning news bulletin dated 18 September 2026 and is used here only for this year’s Assembly preparations.
Neither source reports what Fiji’s national statement will cover at this year’s Assembly, or who will deliver it; our own reporting on Fiji’s delegation ahead of Pre-COP31 is the most recent account we have. Separately, SBS reported in the same 18 September bulletin that Fiji has declared a national health emergency as HIV cases surge, a declaration set out in our report on Fiji’s declared HIV emergency. We will update this piece if either source publishes detail on Fiji’s 2026 Assembly programme.
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Peter Thomson elected president of the UN General Assembly?
UN records date the ballot to 13 June 2016, when the 193-member Assembly elected Thomson, then Fiji’s permanent representative to the United Nations, to preside over its 71st session, which ran from September 2016 to September 2017. The Free Press Journal reported the result — 94 votes for Thomson to 90 for Andreas Mavroyiannis of Cyprus — describing it as a keenly contested election. The version of that report we consulted carries a 30 May 2019 page date and does not state the year of the vote; its own details place it in 2016, because it describes Mogens Lykketoft as the incumbent and Ban Ki-moon as the serving secretary-general.
Who did Peter Thomson succeed as General Assembly president?
The Free Press Journal reported that Thomson was succeeding Mogens Lykketoft of Denmark. It described Lykketoft’s singular achievement as making the process of electing the secretary-general more open, including meetings at which UN members and civil society representatives heard from the ten candidates and questioned them.
What happened during the session Thomson presided over?
According to UN records, the 71st session appointed António Guterres of Portugal as secretary-general on 13 October 2016, on the recommendation of the Security Council, to succeed Ban Ki-moon. The Free Press Journal had reported before the handover that Thomson was to oversee the Assembly’s part in choosing Ban’s successor, in a process it said would have a measure of transparency for the first time.
What other UN roles has Peter Thomson held?
According to The Free Press Journal, Thomson was vice president of the General Assembly in 2010-11. The outlet also reported that he chaired the developing nations’ Group of 77 and chaired the executive boards of both the UN Development Programme and the UN Population Fund. UN records show that after his presidency ended he was appointed the secretary-general’s special envoy for the ocean in 2017.
Why did Thomson promise more transparency in the president’s office?
The Free Press Journal reported that he made the pledge at a news conference in the wake of corruption allegations against a former Assembly president, John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, who held the post in 2013-14. The outlet said US federal prosecutor Preet Bharara accused Ashe of taking over US$1 million in bribes from a Chinese real estate developer operating in Macau.
Which country’s Security Council bid has Fiji backed?
The Free Press Journal reported that Fijian Prime Minister Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama declared his country was strongly supporting India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. The outlet noted India belongs to the Group of 77, the developing-nations bloc Thomson has chaired.
