Suggestions that John Howard, George Bush, Tony Blair, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Benjamin Netanyahu, The Milky Bar Kid, Malcolm Turnbull, Godwin Grech or the fairy at the bottom of the garden might have been "shortlisted" for the Nobel Peace Prize might be taken seriously in some quarters, however .....

Below is a brief description of the process involved in selecting the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.

September - Invitation letters are sent out. The Nobel Committee sends out invitation letters to individuals qualified to nominate - members of national assemblies, governments, and international courts of law; university chancellors, professors of social science, history, philosophy, law and theology; leaders of peace research institutes and institutes of foreign affairs; previous Nobel Peace Prize Laureates; board members of organizations that have received the Nobel Peace Prize; present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; and former advisers of the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

February - Deadline for submission. The Committee bases its assessment on nominations that must be postmarked no later than 1 February each year. Nominations postmarked and received after this date are included in the following year's discussions. In recent years, the Committee has received close to 200 different nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize. The number of nominating letters is much higher, as many are for the same candidates.

February-March - Short list. The Committee assesses the candidates' work and prepares a short list.

March-August - Adviser review. The short list is reviewed by permanent advisers and advisers specially recruited for their knowledge of specific candidates. The advisers do not directly evaluate nominations nor give explicit recommendations.

October - Nobel Laureates are chosen. At the beginning of October, the Nobel Committee chooses the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates through a majority vote. The decision is final and without appeal. The names of the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates are then announced.

December - Nobel Laureates receive their prize. The Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony takes place on 10 December in Oslo, Norway, where the Nobel Laureates receive their Nobel Prize, which consists of a Nobel Medal and Diploma, and a document confirming the prize amount.

Are the nominations made public?

The statutes of the Nobel Foundation restrict disclosure of information about the nominations, whether publicly or privately, for 50 years. The restriction concerns the nominees and nominators, as well as investigations and opinions related to the award of a prize.

While the official list of nominees for the Nobel Peace Prize is kept secret, the Oslo-based International Peace Research Institute - which has no formal ties to the Nobel Peace Prize committee publishes an annual of rumoured & confirmed contenders which, this year included .....

http://www.prio.no/About/PeacePrize/PRIO-Directors-Speculations-2009/ .....

That any one of these worthy individuals was overlooked in favour of the great false hope is, of course, enough to discredit not only the entire selection process, but the integrity of the honour itself .....