Table of Contents
WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
The UN General Assembly has elected Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council for two years starting in January.
The five new members will replace Bolivia, Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands and Sweden on the council.
SELECTION OF MEMBERS
•There are 15 members on the UN Security Council, including the five permanent ones — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and 10 non permanent
members, half of which are elected each year.
NOTES
These five non-permanent members were elected according to the following pattern
Two seats for Group of African states and Group of Asia Pacific states, One for the Group of Latin American and Caribbean states
Two seats for Western European and other states.
PATTERN
• Each year, the General Assembly elects five non permanent members (out of ten in total) for a two-year term. The ten non-permanent seats are distributed on a regional basis:
•five for African and Asian countries;
• one for Eastern European countries;
• two for Latin American and Caribbean countries;
• two for Western European and other countries.
IMPORTANT POINTS INDONESIA WINS UNSC VOTE
Maldives and Indonesia had contested for a seat in the UNSC, but in the plenary session of Friday held at the UN headquarters in New York, Indonesia won the seat after securing 144 votes against 46 for the Maldives.
190 MEMBERS PARTICIPATE
In the election, 190 members participated, and the winning members had to get more than
two-thirds majority or 127 votes.
A 10-YEAR-OLD PROMISE
From at least 2008, India has promised Maldives its support in this election. A joint statement in December 2008, when President Mohamed Nasheed visited New Delhi, said: “…India expressed appreciation to the Maldives side for its support to India’s candidature for a permanent seat in the expanded Security Council and for its candidature to the non permanent member seat of the UN Security Council for the year 2011-2012. Maldives also thanked India for its support
for its candidature to the non-permanent seat of UN Security Council for the year 2019-20.”
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