A delegate (center) casts her ballot for the election of five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council at the UN headquarters in New York, on June 11, 2021. (EVAN SCHNEIDER / UN PHOTO / HANDOUT VIA XINHUA)
UNITED NATIONS – Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were elected non-permanent members of the UN Security Council on Friday for a two-year term.
The newly elected members will take up their new responsibilities on Jan. 1, 2022, and will serve till Dec. 31, 2023.
The five newly elected countries will replace the outgoing non-permanent UN Security Council members of Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia, and Vietnam
All five candidates were running unopposed on Friday. They will replace the outgoing non-permanent members of Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia, and Vietnam.
A candidate must obtain the support of two-thirds of the member states present and voting at the General Assembly session in order to secure a non-permanent seat on the Security Council, regardless of whether the candidate is contested or not. This means that a minimum of 129 positive votes are required to win a seat if all 193 UN member states are present and voting.
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In Friday's voting, Ghana won 185 votes, Gabon 183 votes, Brazil 181 votes, the UAE 179 votes, and Albania 175 votes, according to results announced by Volkan Bozkir, the current General Assembly president.
Among the five newly elected members, Albania is the only country that has never served on the Security Council. Brazil has served 10 times.
The Security Council has 15 members, five of which are permanent ones: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. The 10 non-permanent seats of the council are allocated by geographic region, with five replaced each year.
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The five newly elected countries represent Africa, the Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe. The Western Europe and other states group is not contesting any seats this year, as its two seats, currently held by Ireland and Norway, come up for election every other year.
The Security Council is considered the most powerful body of the United Nations. The council, which is tasked to maintain international peace and security, can make legally binding decisions and has the power to impose sanctions and authorize the use of force.
