*OSLO: Has Donald Trump really been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize?The Norwegian Nobel Institute said Wednesday it had filed a police reportafter receiving a seemingly fraudulent nomination for the US president.*
“We have good reason to believe that a nomination we received concerningTrump has been falsified,” Nobel Institute director Olav Njolstad told AFP.
He refused to provide further details, saying police were now looking intothe matter.
Each year, nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize must be submitted byJanuary 31. Among those entitled to propose names are members of parliamentand government, former laureates and some university professors.
While the list of candidates is kept secret for at least 50 years, thosewho nominate are however allowed to disclose their choice.
The Peace Research Institute of Oslo (Prio) said in early February thatTrump’s name was on the list.
Like last year, Trump was nominated for his “ideology of peace throughstrength” by an American who did not want his identity revealed, accordingto Prio, a body independent of the Nobel organisation which closelymonitors the nominations revealed publicly.
It is possible that this nomination was submitted by a person suspected ofcommitting identity fraud to appear eligible to nominate.
The Nobel Institute said it had received 329 valid nominations for the 2018Peace Prize. The five members of the Nobel committee that selects thewinner are also allowed to submit names during their first meeting of theyear, which was held on Monday.
Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege and Yazidi activist Nadia Murad, who bothcampaign against sexual violence, topped Prio’s early shortlist.
“Although their experiences and practices differ greatly, there can be nodoubt about the potency of their global advocacy work against sexualviolence in conflict,” director Henrik Urdal said on the Prio website.
Among the nominations made public so far is the so-called Umbrella Movementwhich called for democratic reform in Hong Kong in 2014, nominated by abipartisan group of US congressmen.
Others include former French president Jacques Chirac, as well as theUNHCR, Pope Francis, the European Court of Human Rights, formerintelligence contractor Edward Snowden, Syria’s “White Helmets” rescuevolunteers, Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, the UN Committee AgainstTorture, Kurdish peshmarga fighters, and the pro-Palestinian BDS (Boycott,Divestment, Sanctions) Movement.
Last year’s Peace Prize went to nuclear disarmament group ICAN for itsdecade-long campaign to rid the world of the atomic bomb.
It was a key player in the adoption of a historic nuclear weapons bantreaty, signed by 122 countries in July. However, the accord was largelysymbolic as none of the nine known world nuclear powers signed up to it.
The name of the 2018 winner will be announced in early October. – APP/AFP