A/51/PV.48 General Assembly

This afternoon the General Assembly will continue with the election of 18 members of the Economic and Social Council to replace those members whose term of office expires on 31 December 1996. As members will recall, when the 47th plenary meeting was adjourned earlier today there still remained one seat to be filled from among the Asian States. In accordance with the rules of procedure, we shall proceed now to the fourth round of balloting, by secret ballot, for the remaining seat from among the Asian States. This fourth round of balloting shall be restricted to the two States from among the Asian States which were not elected but which obtained the largest number of votes in the previous ballot, namely Sri Lanka and Viet Nam. This is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure. Ballot papers marked “B” will now be distributed. May I ask representatives to write on the ballot papers the name of the State for which they wish to vote. Ballot papers marked “B”, for the Asian States, will be declared invalid if they contain the name of a State other than Sri Lanka or Viet Nam, as well as if they contain the name of more than one State.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group B — Asian States Number of ballot papers: 168 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 168 Abstentions: 1 Number of Members voting: 167 Required two-thirds majority: 112 Number of votes obtained: Sri Lanka 112 Viet Nam 55

I congratulate Sri Lanka on its election. The following 18 States have thus been elected members of the Economic and Social Council for a three- year term beginning 1 January 1997: Cape Verde, Chile, I wish to thank the tellers and the Secretariat for their assistance in this election. The General Assembly has thus concluded its consideration of agenda item 15 (b).