Panama may be compromise candidate of Guatemala, Venezuela

United Nations, Nov 2 (UNI) Panama seems to have emerged as a compromise candidate to represent the 35-member Latin American and Caribbean group on the 15-member powerful UN Security Council as a non-permanent member, according to diplomatic sources.

Guatemala and Venezuela have been deadlocked despite many rounds of voting by the UN General Assembly whose two-thirds members must vote for any member to be elected to the Security Council.

But the group must formally approve of the Panama candidature before the General Assembly votes on it.

Guatemala, supported by Washington, led Venezuela in all but one of the 47 voting rounds conducted so far. But it fell short of the mandatory two-thirds majority of the General Assembly votes.

The 47th round was conducted yesterday and a new vote was scheduled for next Tuesday. If Panama is chosen as a compromise candidate, there will be no further rounds of voting.

In the final round held on Tuesday, when 122 votes would have been enough to secure victory, Guatemala obtained 101 votes, Venezuela received 78, and Barbados, Ecuador and Uruguay received one vote each. There were seven abstentions.

There is no limit to the number of rounds of voting. In 1979-80 there were a record 155 ballots before Mexico was chosen from the Latin American and Caribbean group to serve a two-year term.

On October 16, Assembly members, following an agreed geographic allocation, elected Belgium, Indonesia, Italy and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members starting January next year. They will replace Denmark, Greece, Japan and Tanzania when their terms end in December.

The Council's five other non-permanent members, whose terms end in December 2007, are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia.

The five permanent members -- which are the only members with veto power when voting -- are China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States.

UNI XC SAM HT1142