A/67/PV.33 General Assembly

The Assembly will now proceed to by-elections to elect members of the Economic and Social Council, in accordance with rule 140 of the rules of procedure. In that connection, I would first like to draw the attention of members to document A/67/485, which contains a letter dated 28 September 2012 from the Permanent Representative of Australia to the United Nations. In his letter, the Permanent Representative of Australia, in his capacity as Chair of the Western European and other States, announces that Australia will relinquish its seat on the Economic and Social Council at the end of the year 2012 for the remainder of its term in favour of New Zealand; that Germany will relinquish its seat on the Council, also at the end of the year 2012, for the remainder of its term in favour of Austria; that Finland will relinquish its seat on the Council, also at the end of the year 2012, for the remainder of its term in favour of Denmark; and that Switzerland will relinquish its seat on the Council, also at the end of the year 2012, for the remainder of its term in favour of Sweden. As a result, four vacancies will occur and new members must therefore be elected to fill the unexpired terms of office of Australia, Germany, Finland and Switzerland, commencing on 1 January 2013 and expiring on 31 December 2013 in the case of Australia, Finland and Switzerland, and on 31 December 2014 in the case of Germany. In accordance with paragraph 4 of resolution 2847 (XXVI) of 20 December 1971, and taking into account that the vacancies will occur from among the Group of Western European and other States, the new members should therefore be elected from that region. I should like to inform the Assembly that the candidates who receive a two-thirds majority and the greatest number of votes by members present and voting will be declared elected. 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. We shall now proceed accordingly. I should like to inform members that, as of 1 January 2013, the following States from the Group of Western European and other States will be represented on the Economic and Social Council: France, Ireland, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The names of those five States should therefore not appear on the ballot. Before we begin the voting process, I should like to remind members that, pursuant to rule 88 of the rules of procedure of the General Assembly, no representative shall interrupt the voting except on a point of order on the actual conduct of the voting. In addition, ballot papers will be given only to the representative seated directly behind the country’s nameplate. We shall now begin the voting process. Members are requested to remain seated until all ballots have been collected. I should like to remind members that, at this stage, they are voting in the by-election for four seats for the Group of Western European and other States. The election of 18 members of the Council will take place immediately following this by-election. Ballot papers will now be distributed. I request representatives to use only those ballot papers and to write on them the names of the States for which they wish to vote. A ballot will be declared invalid if it contains more names of Member States from the relevant region than the number of seats assigned to it. A ballot will also be declared invalid if all the names of the Member States on that ballot do not belong to the relevant region.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group B — Western European and other States Number of ballot papers: 191 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 190 Abstentions: 3 Number of members voting: 187 Required two-thirds majority: 125 Number of votes obtained: Austria 132 New Zealand 132 Denmark 130 Sweden 129 San Marino 55 Netherlands 50 Canada 49 United States 49

I congratulate Austria, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden on having been elected members of the Economic and Social Council. The General Assembly will next turn to the election of 18 members of the Economic and Social Council to replace those members whose term of office expires on 31 December 2012. The 18 outgoing members are Argentina, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Canada, Chile, Comoros, Egypt, Ghana, Iraq, Italy, Mongolia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Rwanda, Slovakia, Ukraine, the United States of America and Zambia. Pursuant to rule 146 of the rules of procedure, those countries are eligible for immediate re-election. Members will recall that Australia, Finland, Germany and Switzerland relinquished their seats on the Economic and Social Council, effective 1 January 2013, and that Austria, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden have just been elected to fill those vacancies. As of 1 January 2013, the following States will be represented on the Economic and Social Council: Austria, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Latvia, Lesotho, Libya, Malawi, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Senegal, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The names of those 36 States should therefore not appear on the ballots. In accordance with paragraph 4 of resolution 2847 (XXVI), of 20 December 1971, and taking into account the number of States that will remain members of the Council after 1 January 2013, the eighteen members should be elected as follows: five from African States, four from Asian and Pacific States, two from Eastern European States, three from Latin American and Caribbean States, and four from Western European and other States. The ballot papers reflect that pattern. I should like to inform the Assembly that those candidates — their number not exceeding the number of seats to be filled — that receive a two-thirds majority and the greatest number of votes by members present and voting, will be declared elected. Consistent with past practice, in the case of a tie vote making it necessary to determine the candidate that will proceed to the next round of restricted balloting, there will be a special restricted ballot limited to those candidates that have obtained an equal number of votes. May I take it that the General Assembly agrees to those procedures?

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 of the respective regional groups, the Secretariat has been informed of the following. For the five vacant seats from among the African States, the Group has endorsed five candidates: Benin, Mauritius, South Africa, the Sudan and Tunisia. For the four vacant seats from among the Asian and Pacific States, there are five candidates: Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan. For the two vacant seats from among the Eastern European States, the Group has endorsed two candidates: Albania and Croatia. For the three vacant seats from among the Latin American and Caribbean States, the Group has endorsed three candidates: the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Colombia and Haiti. For the four vacant seats from among the Western European and other States, the Group has endorsed four candidates: Canada, the Netherlands, San Marino and the United States of America. In accordance with rule 92 of the rules of procedure, we shall now proceed to the election by secret ballot. We shall now begin the voting process. Ballot papers marked “A”, “B”, “C”, “D” and “E” will now be distributed. I request representatives to use only those ballot papers and to write on them the names of the States for which they wish to vote. A ballot will be declared invalid if it contains more names of Member States from the relevant region than the number of seats assigned to it. A ballot will also be declared invalid if none of the names of the Member States on that ballot belongs to the relevant region. If a ballot paper of a region contains both the names of Member States that belong to and that are outside of that region, the ballot remains valid but only the names of the Member States that belong to the relevant region will be counted. The names of Member States that do not belong to that region will not be counted.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group A — African States Number of ballot papers: 192 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 192 Abstentions: 0 Number of members voting: 192 Required two-thirds majority: 128 Number of votes obtained: Benin 190 Mauritius 189 Tunisia 186 South Africa 183 Sudan 176 Group B — Asian and Pacific States Number of ballot papers: 192 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 192 Abstentions: 0 Number of members voting: 192 Required two-thirds majority: 128 Number of votes obtained: Kuwait 180 Kyrgyzstan 164 Turkmenistan 140 Nepal 131 Saudi Arabia 128 Bahrain 1 Cambodia 1 Group C — Eastern European States Number of ballot papers: 192 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 1 Number of members voting: 190 Required two-thirds majority: 127 Number of votes obtained: Croatia 185 Albania 184 Group D — Latin American and Caribbean States Number of ballot papers: 192 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 191 Abstentions: 0 Number of members voting: 191 Required two-thirds majority: 128 Number of votes obtained: Plurinational State of Bolivia 186 Colombia 186 Haiti 186 Group E — Western European and other States Number of ballot papers: 192 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 192 Abstentions: 3 Number of members voting: 189 Required two-thirds majority: 126 Number of votes obtained: San Marino 184 Netherlands 179 Canada 174 United States of America 171 Norway 1 Andorra 1 Finland 1

I congratulate the States that 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 109. Programme of work

As announced in today’s Journal of the United Nations, I should like to inform members that the revision to the programme of work and schedule of plenary meetings of the General Assembly during the main part of its sixty-seventh session has been issued and is contained in document A/INF/67/4/Rev.1.