A/52/PV.30 General Assembly

In a letter contained in document A/52/350/Add.4, the Secretary-General informs the President of the General Assembly that, since the issuance of his communications dated 16 and 29 September and 6 and 8 October 1997, Dominica has made the necessary payment to reduce its arrears below the amount specified in Article 19 of the Charter. May I take it that the General Assembly duly takes note of this information?

This morning the General Assembly will proceed to the election of five non-permanent members of the Security Council to replace those members whose term of office expires on 31 December 1997. The five non-permanent outgoing members are the following: Chile, Egypt, Guinea-Bissau, Poland and the Republic of Korea. These five States cannot be re-elected and therefore their names should not appear on the ballot papers. Apart from the five permanent members, the Security Council will include in 1998 the following States: Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya, Portugal and Sweden. The names of those States, therefore, should also not appear on the ballot papers. Of the five non-permanent members which will remain in office in 1998, two are from Africa and Asia, one is from Latin America and the Caribbean and two are from Western European and other States. Consequently, pursuant to paragraph 3 of General Assembly resolution 1991 A (XVIII) of 17 December 1963, the five non-permanent members should be elected according to the following pattern: three from Africa and Asia, one from Eastern Europe and one from Latin America and the Caribbean. The ballot papers reflect this pattern. In accordance with established practice, there is an understanding to the effect that, of the three States to be elected from Africa and Asia, two should be from Africa and one from Asia. I should like to inform the Assembly that the number of candidates, not exceeding the number of seats In the case of a tie vote for a remaining seat, there will be a restricted ballot limited to those candidates which have obtained an equal number of votes. May I take it that the General Assembly agrees to that procedure?

In accordance with rule 92 of the rules of procedure, the election shall be held by secret ballot, and there shall be no nominations. Regarding candidatures, I have been informed by the Chairmen of the respective regional groups that for the three vacant seats from among the African and Asian States there are three endorsed candidates, namely, Bahrain, Gabon and the Gambia. From among the Eastern European States, there are two candidates for one vacant seat. The candidates are Slovenia and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. As for the Latin American and Caribbean States, Brazil is the endorsed candidate for one vacant seat. In accordance with rule 92 of the rules of procedure, we shall proceed now to the election by secret ballot. Ballot papers marked “A”, “B” and “C” will now be distributed. I request representatives to use only those ballot papers that have been distributed and to write on them the names of the five States for which they wish to vote. A ballot paper containing more names from the relevant region than the number of seats assigned to it will be declared invalid. Names of Member States on a ballot paper which do not belong to that region will not be counted. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Mmualefe (Botswana), Miss Gordon (Jamaica) and Mr. Hussin (Malaysia) acted as tellers.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group A — African and Asian States Number of ballot papers: 174 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 174 Abstentions: 0 Number of Members voting: 174 Required two-thirds majority: 116 Number of votes obtained: Bahrain 172 Gabon 171 Gambia 169 Zambia 1 Group B — Eastern European States Number of ballot papers: 174 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 174 Abstentions: 4 Numbers of Members voting: 170 Required two-thirds majority: 114 Number of votes obtained: Slovenia 140 The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 30 Group C — Latin American and Caribbean States Number of ballot papers: 174 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 174 Abstentions: 6 Numbers of Members voting: 168 Required two-thirds majority: 112 Number of votes obtained: Brazil 167 Argentina 1

I congratulate the States which have been elected members of the Security Council. I also This concludes our consideration of sub-item (a) of agenda item 15. Programme of work

I should like to inform delegations that at 10 a.m. tomorrow, 15 October, in Conference Room 4, the General Assembly will meet to consider the report of the Fifth Committee on sub-item (a) of agenda item 142, entitled “Financing of the United Nations peacekeeping operations”. The report of the Fifth Committee, which will be issued tomorrow morning as document A/52/453, Immediately after the adjournment of that plenary meeting of the General Assembly, the second meeting of the open-ended informal consultations of the plenary on agenda item 157 will be held in the same Conference Room.