A/52/PV.43 General Assembly

This morning, 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 1997. As members will recall, when the 41st plenary meeting was adjourned on Thursday, 30 October, there still remained one seat from among the Latin American and Caribbean States to be filled. We must therefore proceed to an unrestricted ballot. This fifth round of balloting is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure. May I remind the Assembly that for this round of unrestricted balloting, any Member State from among the Latin American and Caribbean States may be a candidate, except those which will remain members of the Economic and Social Council as of 1 January 1998 and those which have already been elected for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 1998. ____________________ * Reissued for technical reasons. To clarify this, I shall read out the names of those Members from among the Latin American and Caribbean States which cannot be voted for in the present balloting: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guyana, Mexico and Nicaragua. Ballot papers marked “D” will now be distributed. May I request representatives to write on the ballot papers marked “D”, for the Latin American and Caribbean States, the name of the one State for which they wish to vote. Ballot papers marked “D” bearing more than one name will be declared invalid.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group D — Latin American and Caribbean States Number of ballot papers: 173 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 173 Abstentions: 1 Number of members voting: 172

Since no candidate obtained the required two-thirds majority in the previous ballot, there still remains one seat to be filled from among the Latin American and Caribbean States. We must therefore proceed to another unrestricted ballot. This sixth round of balloting is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure. Ballot papers marked “D” will now be distributed. May I request representatives to write on the ballot papers marked “D”, for the Latin American and Caribbean States, the name of the one State for which they wish to vote. Ballot papers marked “D” bearing more than one name will be declared invalid.

I call on the representative of Antigua and Barbuda on a point of order.

I have been assured by the delegations of Guatemala, Peru, Saint Lucia and other members of the group of Latin American and Caribbean States that the representative of Guatemala had sought to announce that he was withdrawing from the present round of voting as the result of an agreement made among the three candidates. Unfortunately, the President was unaware of this, and I would consequently request that the ballots collected for the sixth round be declared void and that new ballots be distributed on the clear understanding that the two candidates are Peru and Saint Lucia.

I call on the representative of Guatemala on a point of order.

As soon as my delegation heard the results of this morning’s first round of voting, I raised my country’s name plate in an attempt to secure the attention Guatemala sincerely thanks friendly countries for their support and for their expression of confidence that small countries and countries seeking the equitable distribution of important seats in the Organization can also be elected to such posts. Guatemala has always respected, and will continue to respect, voting arrangements with other countries, and now withdraws its candidature in favour of that of Saint Lucia, the candidate endorsed by the Caribbean Community.

I call on the representative of Swaziland on a point of order.

I do not know if this is a point of order or a request for clarification. While my delegation sympathizes fully with the statements just made, it would have been proper for them to have been made before we started voting. As it is, I am concerned that the voting should be guided by the rules of procedure. My delegation would be happy if the President would reflect before a decision is taken to discount the votes we have cast. I sympathize with the President: we seem to be conversing with certain specific delegations, which, in my view, is not in keeping with the traditions of the General Assembly. My ballot is in the box; I have made my decision; and the positions recently expressed are likely to distort the action of my delegation. We are prepared to jump on any bandwagon, but this is setting a bad precedent.

The proposals made by the representatives of Antigua and Barbuda and of Guatemala were made during a vote, and in accordance with the rules of procedure, it is only points of order in connection with the actual conduct of the voting that are permissible at that time. We must, however, be guided not only by the rules of procedure, but by logic. Therefore, I wish to make the following ruling, somewhat in keeping with the statement of the representative of Swaziland: that we proceed to count the votes, announce the result of the voting, and then proceed to a new round of voting taking into consideration the statements just made by the representatives of Antigua and Barbuda and of Guatemala. This would be in

The result of the voting is as follows: Group D — Latin American and Caribbean States Number of ballot papers: 170 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 170 Abstentions: 2 Number of members voting: 168 Required two-thirds majority: 112 Number of votes obtained: Peru 76 Saint Lucia 65 Guatemala 27

Since no candidate obtained the required two-thirds majority in the previous ballot, there still remains one seat to be filled from among the Latin American and Caribbean States. We must therefore proceed to another unrestricted ballot, taking into consideration the statements made by the representatives of Antigua and Barbuda and of Guatemala. This seventh round of balloting is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure. Ballot papers marked “D” will now be distributed. May I request representatives to write on the ballot papers marked “D”, for the Latin American and Caribbean States, the name of the one State for which they wish to vote. Ballot papers marked “D” bearing more than one name will be declared invalid.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group D — Latin American and Caribbean 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: Saint Lucia 89 Peru 78

Since no candidate obtained the required two-thirds majority in the previous ballot, there still remains one seat to be filled from among the Latin American and Caribbean States. In accordance with the rules of procedure we should continue with a series of restricted ballots. This is in accordance with rule 94, which states that if three such unrestricted ballots are inconclusive the next three ballots shall be restricted to the candidates who obtained the greatest number of votes in the third of the unrestricted ballots. However, in view of the lateness of the hour, I propose that we postpone further balloting to a later date to be announced. As there is no objection, may I take it that the General Assembly agrees to that proposal?