Nine States Vie for UNSC Seats

Elections for five non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council will be held tomorrow. Nine countries are formally campaigning for the seats.

The UNSC seeks diverse geographic representation for these seats. Accordingly, three countries from Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, one from Eastern Europe and one from Latin America and the Caribbean will be chosen to succeed Gabon, Lebanon, Nigeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Brazil, whose terms all expire at the end of 2011. Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo are vying for the three seats for Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, while Azerbaijan, Hungary and Slovenia are vying for the Eastern European category. Guatemala is the only declared candidate for the Latin America and the Caribbean region.

a UN Press Release describes the voting process as follows: "Member States will meet in the General Assembly tomorrow morning to elect the Council members by secret ballot, with winning candidates needing two thirds of those countries present and voting. Balloting will continue until enough candidates reach that threshold, even if only one country is competing for a seat in a particular region."

The other non-permanent seats are currently held by Colombia, Germany, India, Portugal and South Africa. Their terms expire on 31 December 2012. The five permanent UN Security Council members are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

(cgb)