Finance
South Korea, Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia were elected to the UN Security Council as non-permanent members for a two-year tenure.
The newly elected members will begin their new duties on January 1, 2024, and will serve until December 31, 2025, according to the Xinhua news agency.
On Tuesday, South Korea, Algeria, Guyana, and Sierra Leone ran unopposed. Slovenia and Belarus competed for the single Eastern European slot.
Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, and the United Arab Emirates will be replaced as non-permanent members by the five newly elected members.
To acquire a non-permanent seat on the Security Council, a candidate must receive the support of two-thirds of the UN member states present and voting at the General Assembly session, regardless of whether the candidacy is contested or not. This means that if all 193 member states are present and voting, a seat must be won with a minimum of 129 favorable votes. Abstaining members are not deemed to be voting.
Guyana received 191 votes from all member states that were present and voting on Tuesday. Sierra Leone received 188 votes, Algeria received 184 votes, and the Republic of Korea received 180 votes, according to results revealed by Csaba Korosi, the current President of the General Assembly, who presided over the voting process.
Slovenia won the first round outright with 153 votes, while Belarus received 38 votes.
All five freshly elected Security Council members have previously served on the body. Algeria has served on three occasions. Guyana and the Republic of Korea both served two terms. Sierra Leone and Slovenia have both served a single term.
The Security Council has 15 members, with five of them being permanent members: the United Kingdom, China, France, Russia, and the United States. The council’s ten non-permanent seats are allocated by geographic region, with five seats being replaced each year.
Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe are represented by the five newly elected countries. The Western European and other states group is not contesting any seats this year, as its two seats, which are now held by Malta and Switzerland until 2024, are up for election every other year.
The Security Council is often regarded as the most powerful organ of the United Nations. The council, which is tasked with maintaining international peace and security, has the authority to impose sanctions and authorize the use of force against governments.
Source:IANS
