Global Policy Forum

The UN General Assembly failed on Monday to produce a fifth winner after electing Belgium, Indonesia, Italy and South Africa to serve as nonpermanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms. Since the fifth nonpermanent seat, to be awarded to a member of the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, is still in contention after ten rounds of election, Sheikha Haya Al Khalifa, the president of the UN General Assembly, announced to set further voting on Tuesday.

During the day-long elections, neither Guatemala nor Venezuela, which are candidates from their regional group, obtained the needed two-thirds majority. In the tenth round of voting where 125 votes were needed to win, Guatemala received 110 votes and Venezuela 77 with 4 abstentions.

In fact, after the first three rounds of election, the assembly has to carry out unrestricted election in accordance with the UN Charter, which means the election is open to all members in the region. Unrestricted balloting will continue until a state from the region achieves the required majority. The winner will replace Argentina, whose term expires on Dec. 31. In the first round of election held on Monday morning, Belgium, Italy, South Africa and Indonesia were elected to serve two-year terms starting Jan. 1, 2007.

The United States is lobbying against the bid of Venezuela for the council's membership. Francisco Javier Arias Cardenas, Venezuela's UN ambassador, accused the United States of trying to turn the vote into a contest between his government and Washington, and stressed votes cast for Venezuela would be "votes of conscience" in favor of the developing world. "We are not competing with a brother country. We are competing with the biggest power on the planet," he told reporters, adding that Venezuela would not withdraw from the race.

The members were elected according to an agreed geographic allocation, which awards two seats to African and Asian countries, two to Western European and Other States, and one to Latin America and the Caribbean during this year's round of elections. Council elections are held by secret ballot, and a winning candidate requires a two-thirds majority of ballots of members present and voting. Formal balloting takes place even in those regions where there is only one candidate per available seat.

Belgium and Italy were the only contenders in the Western European and Other States category, and they received 180 and 186 votes respectively. South Africa, the only candidate in the African group, was elected after picking up 186 votes. In Asia, where there were two contenders, Indonesia received 158 votes and Nepal received 28.

The council's five other nonpermanent members, whose terms on Dec. 31, 2007, are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia. The five permanent members are China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States.

The longest election in the UN history for the membership of the Security Council occurred in 1979. A tense race between Cuba and Colombia began on Oct. 26, 1979 and ended on Jan. 7, 1980. After two months and 155 rounds of election, Mexico, a third candidate, was elected when both Colombia and Cuba decided to withdraw.

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