The final list of hopefuls for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize totals 194 candidates, making it the longest to date in the history of the prestigious award, the Nobel Institute announced on Tuesday.
The list of candidates includes 50 organisations and 144 individuals, and according to sources, features names such as French President Jacques Chirac, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United States President George Bush.
The final number of candidates was announced following the first of many Nobel committee meetings to determine who to award the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize.
The five members of the Nobel committee, who are appointed by, but independent of, the Norwegian Parliament, have the opportunity during their first meeting to add their own candidates to the list of outside nominations, which had to be sent by February 1.
Thousands of people are entitled to nominate for the prize — including past laureates, MPs and Cabinet ministers from around the world and some university professors.
According to Geir Lundestad, the head of the Nobel Institute, candidates chosen by committee members don’t necessarily have a greater chance of winning the prestigious prize than candidates nominated by outsiders.
”Members of the committee submit names that seem interesting to them, but it’s not very common that they really burn for this candidate,” he said.
In addition to the French, British and United States leaders, sources reveal that the pope, former Czech president Vaclav Havel, the European Union, former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei, Cuban dissident Oswaldo Paya and former Israeli nuclear scientist Mordecai Vanunu are all potential Nobel laureates.
Some experts also speculate that Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee could be awarded the prize for their work to relaunch a dialogue between their two countries in January this year.
Being a candidate, however, in no way means that an individual or an organisation has the approval of the Nobel committee, according to Lundestad.
Adolf Hitler, Slobodan Milosevic and even Michael Jackson have figured on previous candidate lists.
The laureate will be announced on October 8 or 15, Lundestad said, adding that the prize would again this year be accompanied by a check for 10-million kronor ($1,3-million). — Sapa-AFP