A/48/PV.44 General Assembly

This afternoon, the General Assembly will continue with the election of five non-permanent members of the Security Council to replace those members whose term of office expires on 31 December 1993. Since the second restricted ballot held this morning has been inconclusive and one seat still remains to be filled from among the African and Asian States, we shall now proceed to the third restricted ballot. This fourth round of balloting shall be restricted to those two States from among the African and Asian States which were not elected but obtained the largest number of votes in the previous ballot - namely Guinea-Bissau and Nigeria. This is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure. The ballot papers will now be distributed. May I ask representatives to write on the ballot papers the name of the State for which they want to vote. This record is subject to correction. Corrections should be sent under the signature of a member of the delegation concerned within one week of the date of publication to the Chief of the Verbatim Reporting Section, Room C-178, and incorporated in a copy of the record. NEW YORK Ballot papers containing the name of a State other than Guinea-Bissau or Nigeria, or containing the name of more than one State, will be declared invalid. I recognize the delegation of Guinea-Bissau.

The General Assembly, after three rounds of balloting, has not been able to take a decision on the last vacancy for Africa. After three rounds of balloting, the General Assembly has not been able to decide between the two candidate countries, given that neither of those two countries was able to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority. That situation is the result of not following the recommendation made by the Group of African States in New York with regard to the African candidacy. The General Assembly has always respected the recommendations of regional groups with regard to candidates. If it has been otherwise this year, it is because the information made available to Member States has been incorrect. In point of fact - and contrary to the allegation made this morning - Rwanda and Guinea-Bissau are and remain the only two valid candidates put forward by the Group of African States. The results of the first three ballots amply demonstrate that the African Group has held to its decision and are eloquent testimony to the sense of discipline and cohesion on which the Group has always prided itself. This morning’s meeting demonstrated that the African States cannot and should not act in a disparate fashion if they wish to uphold their vital collective interests. Guinea-Bissau submitted its candidacy for the Security Council on the recommendation of the Group of African Distr. GENERAL A/48/PV.44 22 November 1993 ENGLISH It is with that understanding and in a spirit of preserving the repute and higher interests of Africa that my delegation has decided to withdraw the candidacy of Guinea-Bissau. On behalf of my country I should like to thank all the delegations that supported and continue to support us and that have given us their encouragement.

I thank the representative of Guinea-Bissau for his cooperation. In accordance with the rules of procedure, we shall now proceed to the third restricted ballot, taking into account the statement just made by the representative of Guinea-Bissau. We are in the process of voting, and I understand that the representative of Nigeria wishes to make a statement. I call upon that representative, on the understanding that his statement relates to the process under way.

I want to thank the representative of Guinea-Bissau, a sister African country, for the conclusion of his statement. Nigeria has always acted in the best spirit of Africa unity, but, to put the record straight, I wish to say this: There were indeed differences of opinion with regard to the recommendation of the candidatures committee within the Group of African States. In any event, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which is the highest political body of the African States, had indicated in the decision taken at the last meeting of the OAU Council of Ministers and the Summit Meeting that it had decided to recognize both Nigeria and Guinea-Bissau as candidates for the non-permanent seat on the Security Council to be vacated by Cape Verde. I just wanted to set the record straight and to thank my colleague from Guinea-Bissau.

In accordance with the rules of procedure we shall now proceed to the third restricted ballot, taking into account the statement made by the representative of Guinea-Bissau. This round of balloting shall be restricted to those two States from among the African and Asian States which were not elected but obtained the largest number of votes in the I understand that the ballot papers have been distributed. May I ask representatives to write on the ballot papers the name of the State for which they want to vote. Ballot papers will be declared invalid if they contain the name of a State other than Guinea-Bissau or Nigeria and if they contain the name of more than one State.

The result of the voting for one non-permanent member of the Security Council is as follows: Group A - African and Asian States Number of ballot papers: 162 Number of invalid ballots: 2 Number of valid ballots: 160 Abstentions: 8 Number of Members voting 152 Required two-thirds majority 102 Number of votes obtained: Nigeria 119 Guinea-Bissau 33

I congratulate the State which has been elected a member of the Security Council, and I thank the tellers for their assistance in this election. The following five States have been elected members of the Security Council for a two-year term beginning on 1 January 1994: Argentina, the Czech Republic, Nigeria, Oman and Rwanda. This concludes our consideration of sub-item (a) of agenda item 15.