Would-be laureates: Malala again tipped for Nobel Peace Prize

This year’s favourites are Snowden, Malala and Pope Francis


Afp October 04, 2014

TOCKHOLM:


Nobel prize season starts on Monday with speculation rife that the peace prize could go to US whistleblower Edward Snowden, Pakistani girls’ education campaigner Malala Yousafzai, or perhaps Pope Francis.


This year saw a record 278 peace prize nominations and, while the list is secret, some names have been revealed by their sponsors, including US whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was nominated by two Norwegian members of parliament.

Kristian Berg Harpviken, director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) is one of few experts to publish an annual shortlist of likely winners, even if he has yet to predict one accurately.

This year he ranked Snowden second place – behind Pope Francis – for exposing the extent of US electronic surveillance. However, he acknowledged that the former intelligence analyst would be a controversial choice as ‘many continue to see him as a traitor and a criminal’.

Pope Francis – topping bookmaker Paddy Power’s list with 9/4 odds – would be another controversial choice.

“The massively unjust global distribution of wealth is detrimental to peace... Pope Francis has brought attention to the fate of the poor, and the need for a new approach to development and economic redistribution,” according to the PRIO director’s prediction.

Critics point out that a papal Nobel would cause a similar outcry to US President Barack Obama’s 2009 Nobel – less than a year into his presidency – which led to complaints that he was awarded for potential good deeds in the future rather than anything he had achieved.

Other favourites, also tipped last year, were 17-year-old Malala Yousafzai – the Pakistani activist for girls’ right to education– and Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege.

Laureates will receive eight million Swedish kronor ($1.11 million, 878,000 euros) per award. The scientific prizes are often shared among several co-winners, which is also occasionally the case for the peace prize.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4th, 2014.

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