Member States Resume Voting On Non-Permanent Seat

Member States Resume Voting On Final Non-Permanent Seat On Security Council

New York, Oct 17 2006 1:00PM

A non-permanent seat on the Security Council remains up for grabs as the United Nations General Assembly resumed voting today in the contest to fill the place allocated to the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States.

After three additional rounds of voting today, which takes the total number of rounds so far to 13, neither Guatemala nor Venezuela had obtained a two-thirds majority of ballots of members present and voting.

The two countries are contending to serve as a non-permanent Council member for a two-year term starting 1 January 2007, replacing Argentina.

In the 13th round, when 125 votes would have been enough to secure victory, Guatemala received 112 votes and Venezuela picked up 75. There were five abstentions.

Balloting will continue until a State from the region achieves the required majority. There is no limit to the number of rounds of voting and in 1979-80 there were a record 155 ballots before Mexico was chosen from the Latin American and Caribbean Group to serve a two-year term.

Yesterday Assembly members, following an agreed geographic allocation, elected Belgium, Indonesia, Italy and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members starting 1 January next year. They will replace Denmark, Greece, Japan and Tanzania when their terms end on 31 December.

The Council’s five other non-permanent members, whose terms end on 31 December 2007, are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia. The five permanent members, which are the only members with veto power in votes, are China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States.

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