UN Assembly set to pick new members of Security Council

United Nations, Oct 14 (UNI) The UN General Assembly will hold elections tomorrow to choose five non-permanent members of the Security Council to serve two-year terms beginning January 1.

Eight countries are contesting five seats that are divided geographically, and the winning nations will replace Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Japan and Tanzania when their terms end on December 31.

Guatemala and Venezuela have expressed their desire to vie for the seat awarded to a member of the group of Latin American and Caribbean States, while Indonesia, South Korea and Nepal have done the same for the Asian group seat.

Elections in the other regions are uncontested. South Africa is the only candidate for the African group seat and Belgium and Italy are the only contenders for the Western European and other group, in which there are two seats. But formal balloting will still take place for those seats tomorrow because the Council is a principal organ of the United Nations.

Elections to the Council are held by secret ballot, and a winning candidate requires a two-thirds majority of ballots of members present and voting. If there is no winner in the first round, the second round will be restricted to those countries obtaining the largest numbers of votes. If, after three restricted rounds there is still no winner, the election is then open to all members. Balloting will continue until a member nation achieves the required majority.

In the Asian race, all three competing countries have previously served on the Council -- Nepal and Indonesia twice and South Korea once, in 1996-97.

Nepal last served in 1988-89, while Indonesia was most recently a Council member in 1995-96.

In the contest in the Latin America and the Caribbean group, Guatemala has never served on the Council before, while Venezuela has been a member four times, most recently in 1992-93.

The Council's five other non-permanent members, whose terms end on December 31 2007, are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia. The five permanent members are China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States.

UNI XC AD VV1835