A/53/PV.57 General Assembly
The meeting was called to order at 3.15 p.m.
15. Elections to fill vacancies in principal organs (b) Election of eighteen members of the Economic and Social Council
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 1998.
As members will recall, when the 56th plenary meeting was adjourned earlier today there still remained two seats from among the Eastern European States to be filled.
In accordance with the rules of procedure, we shall proceed now to the second round of balloting, by secret ballot, for the remaining two seats.
This second round of balloting shall be restricted to the four States from among the Eastern European States that were not elected but that obtained the largest number of votes in the previous ballot — namely, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Moldova and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
This is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure.
Ballot papers marked “C”, for the Eastern European States, will now be distributed. May I ask representatives to write on the ballot papers the names of the two States for which they wish to vote.
Ballot papers marked “C” will be declared invalid if they contain the names of States other than Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Moldova or the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as if they contain the names of more than two States.
At the invitation of the President, Mr. Bijou (Costa Rica), Mr. Osel-Danquah (Ghana), Mr. Sgouropoulos (Greece), Mr. Rózsa (Hungary) and Mr. Misran (Malaysia) acted as tellers.
A vote was taken by secret ballot.
The meeting was suspended at 3.35 p.m. and resumed at 4.10 p.m.
Mr. Kiwanuka (Uganda), Vice-President, took the Chair.
The result of the voting is as follows:
Group C — Eastern European States
Number of ballot papers: 170 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 170 Abstentions: 4
Since no candidate obtained the required two-thirds majority in the previous ballot, there still remain two seats to be filled from among the Eastern European States. We shall therefore proceed to a second restricted ballot.
This third round of balloting shall be restricted to the four States from among the Eastern European States that were not elected but that obtained the largest number of votes in the previous ballot — namely, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Moldova and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
This is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure.
Ballot papers marked “C”, for the Eastern European States, will now be distributed. May I ask representatives to write on the ballot papers the names of the two States for which they wish to vote.
Ballot papers marked “C” will be declared invalid if they contain the names of States other than Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Republic of Moldova or the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as if they contain the names of more than two States.
At the invitation of the President, Mr. Bijou (Costa Rica), Mr. Osel-Danquah (Ghana), Mr. Sgouropoulos (Greece), Mr. Rózsa (Hungary) and Mr. Misran (Malaysia) acted as tellers.
A vote was taken by secret ballot.
The meeting was suspended at 4.20 p.m. and resumed at 4.55 p.m.
The result of the voting is as follows:
Number of ballot papers: 168 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 168 Abstentions: 3 Number of members voting: 165 Required two-thirds majority: 110 Number of votes obtained: Bulgaria 128 Czech Republic 109 Republic of Moldova 54 the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 30
Having obtained the required two-thirds majority, Bulgaria was elected a member of the Economic and Social Council for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 1999.
There remains one seat to be filled from among the Eastern European States. We shall therefore proceed to a third restricted ballot.
This fourth round of balloting shall be restricted to the two States from among the Eastern European States that were not elected but that obtained the largest number of votes in the previous ballot — namely, the Czech Republic and the Republic of Moldova.
This is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure.
Ballot papers marked “C”, for the Eastern European States, 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 “C” will be declared invalid if they contain the names of States other than the Czech Republic or the Republic of Moldova, as well as if they contain the names of more than one State.
At the invitation of the President, Mr. Bijou (Costa Rica), Mr. Osel-Danquah (Ghana), Mr. Sgouropoulos (Greece), Mr. Rózsa (Hungary) and Mr. Misran (Malaysia) acted as tellers.
A vote was taken by secret ballot.
The meeting was suspended at 5.10 p.m. and resumed at 5.30 p.m.
Having obtained the required two-thirds majority, the Czech Republic was elected a member of the Economic and Social Council for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 1999.
The following 18 States have thus been elected members of the Economic and Social Council for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 1999:
I congratulate the States which have been elected members of the Economic and Social Council, and I thank the tellers for their assistance in this election.
This concludes our consideration of sub-item (b) of agenda item 15.
Programme of work
Agenda item 30, “United Nations reform: measures and proposals”, consideration of which was originally scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, 18 November 1998, will now be taken up on the morning of Monday, 23 November, as the second item.
The meeting rose at 5.35 p.m.