A/60/PV.90 General Assembly
6. Election of the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly The President: In accordance with rule 30 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, as amended by resolution 56/509 of 8 July 2002, we shall now proceed to the election of the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly for the sixty-first session. All members of the General Assembly are eligible in this election, except those already represented in the General Committee, namely, those countries whose representatives have been elected to the presidency of the General Assembly or to the chairmanships of the Main Committees for the sixty- first session. In accordance with paragraphs 2 and 3 of the annex to resolution 33/138 of 19 December 1978, the 21 Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly for the sixty-first session shall be elected according to the following pattern: six representatives from African States, four representatives from Asian States, one representative from Eastern European States, three representatives from Latin American and Caribbean States, two representatives from Western European and other States, and representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council. In accordance with paragraph 16 of annex VI to the rules of procedure, the election of the Vice- Presidents of the Assembly by secret ballot will be dispensed with when the number of candidates corresponds to the number of seats to be filled. We shall proceed accordingly. I shall now read the names of the endorsed candidates. African States: Cameroon, Guinea, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe. Asian States: Bhutan, Indonesia, Kuwait, Philippines. Eastern European States: Croatia. Latin American and Caribbean States: Chile, Colombia, Haiti. Western European and other States: Liechtenstein, Netherlands. Since the number of candidates corresponds to the number of seats to be filled in each region, I declare those candidates elected, in addition to the representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council. Let us give them our applause. The following States have therefore been elected to vice-presidencies of the General Assembly for its sixty-first session: Bhutan, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, France, Guinea, Haiti, Indonesia, Kuwait, the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Nigeria, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Uganda, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United States of America and Zimbabwe. Again, I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate the States which have been elected Vice- Presidents of the General Assembly for its sixty-first session. I wish to remind members that the Chairpersons of the Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee) and the Second, Third and Sixth Committees have been elected. After the election of the Chairpersons of the First and Fifth Committees at a later date, the General Committee of the General Assembly for its sixty-first session will then be fully constituted in accordance with rule 38 of the rules of procedure. Before concluding this meeting, I would like to inform members that the list of speakers for the following two high-level meetings are now open: the High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development, and the high-level meeting on the midterm comprehensive review of the implementation of the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2001-2010. Delegates wishing to be inscribed on the list of speakers for the two high-level meetings are requested to contact the General Assembly Affairs branch, as well as to consult the Journal for further details. Guinea-Bissau has asked to speak on a point of order.
I would like to express my pleasure and congratulate the Vice-Presidents of the General Assembly at its sixty- first session, but with the President’s permission, I would like to point out that we have not — I repeat, we have not — taken account of what is contained in rule 31 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, namely, that the 21 Vice-Presidents should normally be elected after the election of all — and I stress all — of the Chairs of the Main Committees.
Now it turns out, for reasons of which we are aware, we were not able to elect more than four Chairs of Main Committees today. So what we should have done, in the humble opinion of my delegation, is for the General Assembly to have agreed that there has been a departure from rule 31 before proceeding as the President did.
I appreciate the expertise of the representative of Guinea-Bissau, and we take note of his comment. I would hope that this would not change the fact there was full unity on the candidatures for vice-presidencies. If there is a difference of opinion at this stage, or at the later stage when we elect the remaining Committee Chairs, we would like to hear it. But I thank the representative of Guinea-Bissau very much for his careful study of the rules of procedure. I am sure that the Secretariat will take serious note of this point of order.
The meeting rose at 11.40 a.m.