A/68/PV.40 General Assembly

Pursuant to General Assembly decision 42/450, of 17 December 1987, and upon nomination by the Economic and Social Council, the Assembly elects the members of the Committee for Programme and Coordination. The Assembly has before it document A/68/302, which contains the nominations by the Economic and Social Council to fill the vacancies in the Committee that will occur as a result of the expiration on 31 December 2013 of the terms of office of Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, China, Eritrea, Japan and the Republic of Korea. Those States are eligible for immediate re-election. I should like to remind members that, after 1 January 2014, the following States will remain members of the Committee: Argentina, Botswana, Belarus, Brazil, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Cuba, El Salvador, France, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Peru, the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the United Republic of Tanzania, the United States of *1353755* 13-53755 (E) America, Uruguay and Zimbabwe. Those 24 States are therefore not eligible in this election. I should now like to inform members that the following States have been nominated by the Economic and Social Council: Benin and Ethiopia for two of the three seats among the African States; China and Japan for two of the three seats among the Asia-Pacific States; and Haiti for the one seat among the Latin American and Caribbean States; In accordance with rule 92 of the rules of procedure, all elections should be held by secret ballot and there shall be no nominations. However, I should like to recall paragraph 16 of General Assembly decision 34/401, whereby the practice of dispensing with the secret ballot for elections to subsidiary organs when the number of candidates corresponds to the number of seats to be filled should become standard, unless a delegation specifically requests a vote on a given election. Today is not that day. In the absence of such a request, may I take it that the Assembly decides to proceed to the election on the basis of dispensing with the secret ballot?

The number of States nominated from among the African States, the Asia-Pacific States and the Latin American and Caribbean States is equal to or less than the number of seats to be filled in each of those groups. May I therefore take it that the Assembly wishes to declare those States nominated by the Economic and Social Council  — Benin, China, Ethiopia, Haiti and Japan  — elected members of the Committee for Programme and Coordination for a three-year term of office beginning on 1 January 2014?

I congratulate the States that have just been elected members of the Committee for Programme and Coordination. Members are reminded that the Economic and Social Council postponed the nomination of one member from the African States and one member from the Asia-Pacific States for election for a three-year term beginning on 1 January 2014. Members are also reminded that there remain two vacancies from among the Western European and other States for terms beginning on the date of election and expiring on 31 December 2014, and one vacancy, also from among the Western European and other States, for a term beginning on the date of appointment and expiring on 31 December 2015. The General Assembly will be in a position to act on those vacancies upon nomination by the Economic and Social Council. We have thus concluded this stage of our consideration of sub-item (a) of agenda item 115.

The General Assembly will now proceed to the election of 18 members of the Economic and Social Council to replace those members whose term of office expires on 31 December 2013. The 18 outgoing members are: Bulgaria, Cameroon, China, Denmark, Ecuador, Gabon, Latvia, Malawi, Mexico, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Qatar, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Senegal, Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Pursuant to rule 146 of the rules of procedure, those countries are eligible for immediate re-election. As of 1 January 2014, the following States will be represented on the Economic and Social Council: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Benin, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Ethiopia, France, Haiti, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Japan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lesotho, Libya, Mauritius, Nepal, the Netherlands, Nigeria, San Marino, South Africa, Spain, the Sudan, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan and the United States of America. The names of those 36 States should therefore not appear on the ballots. In accordance with paragraph 4 of General Assembly 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 2014, the 18 members should be elected as follows: four from African States, four from Asia-Pacific States, three from Eastern European States, three from Latin American and Caribbean States and four from the 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 to be elected or 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 these 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 four vacant seats from among the African States, the Group has endorsed four candidates: Botswana, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Togo. For the four vacant seats from among the Asia-Pacific States, the Group has endorsed four candidates: Bangladesh, China, Kazakhstan and the Republic of Korea. For the three vacant seats from among the Eastern European States, the Group has endorsed three candidates: Georgia, the Russian Federation and Serbia. For the three vacant seats from among the Latin American and Caribbean States, the Group has endorsed three candidates: Antigua and Barbuda, Guatemala and Panama. For the four vacant seats from among the Western European and other States, the Group has endorsed four candidates: Denmark, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In accordance with rule 92 of the rules of procedure, we shall now proceed to the election by secret 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 name plate. 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 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: 188 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 188 Abstentions: 1 Number of members present and voting: 187 Required two-thirds majority: 125 Number of votes obtained: Togo 184 Botswana 182 Democratic Republic of the Congo 182 Congo 179 Senegal 1 Gabon 1 Group B — Asia-Pacific States Number of ballot papers: 188 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 188 Abstentions: 1 Number of members present and voting: 187 Required two-thirds majority: 125 Number of votes obtained: China 187 Bangladesh 181 Kazakhstan 179 Republic of Korea 179 Group C — Eastern European States Number of ballot papers: 188 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 187 Abstentions: 0 Number of members present and voting: 187 Required two-thirds majority: 125 Number of votes obtained: Serbia 182 Russian Federation 180 Georgia 175 Lithuania 1 Group D — Latin American and Caribbean States Number of ballot papers: 188 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 187 Abstentions: 1 Number of members present and voting: 186 Required two-thirds majority: 124 Number of votes obtained: Panama 183 Antigua and Barbuda 181 Guatemala 179 Mexico 1 Group E — Western European and other States Number of ballot papers: 188 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 188 Abstentions: 4 Number of members present and voting: 184 Required two-thirds majority: 123 Number of votes obtained: New Zealand 179 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 178 Sweden 176 Denmark 175 Greece 6 Italy 2 Portugal 1 Germany 1 Switzerland 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. Before concluding, I should like to announce that the by-election to fill the vacancies resulting from four members from the Group of Western European and other States relinquishing their seats will be held on Monday, 18 November 2013. This concludes this stage of our consideration of sub-item (b) of agenda item 114.