A/73/PV.89 General Assembly

The General Assembly will proceed to the election of five non-permanent members of the Security Council to replace those members whose term of office expires on 31 December 2019. The five outgoing non-permanent members are the following: Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, Peru and Poland. Those five States cannot be re-elected. Their names should therefore not appear on the ballot papers. Apart from the five permanent members, the Security Council will include the following States in the year 2020: Belgium, the Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia and South Africa. The names of those States should therefore also not appear on the ballot papers. Of the five non-permanent members that will remain in office in the year 2020, two are from among African and Asia-Pacific States, one is from among Latin American and Caribbean States and two are from among Western European and other States. Consequently, pursuant to paragraph 3 of resolution 1991 A (XVIII), of 17 December 1963, the five non-permanent members should be elected according to the following pattern: three from African and Asia- Pacific States, one from Eastern European States and one from Latin American and Caribbean States. The ballot papers reflect this pattern. In accordance with established practice, there is an understanding to the effect that, of the three States to be elected from among the African and Asia-Pacific States, two should be from Africa and one should be from the Asia-Pacific region. I should like to inform the Assembly that those candidates — their number not to exceed the number of seats to be filled — receiving the greatest number of votes and a two-thirds majority of those present and voting will be declared elected. If the number of candidates obtaining a two-thirds majority is less than the number of members to be elected, there shall be additional ballots to fill the remaining places, the voting being restricted to the candidates obtaining the greatest number of votes in the previous ballot to a number not more than twice the places remaining to be filled. Also, consistent with past practice, in the case of a tie vote, and when it becomes 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 these procedures?

Regarding candidatures, I have been informed of the following. For the three vacant seats from among the African and Asia-Pacific States, three endorsed candidates have been communicated, namely, the Niger, Tunisia and Viet Nam. For the one vacant seat from among the Eastern European States, two candidates have been communicated, namely, Estonia and Romania. For the one vacant seat from among the Latin American and Caribbean States, there is one endorsed candidate, namely, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. In addition, I have received a note verbale dated 6 June 2019 from the Permanent Mission of El Salvador to the United Nations in which I was informed that El Salvador has presented its candidature for the one vacant seat from among the Latin American and Caribbean States. 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. Members are requested to remain seated until all ballots have been collected. Ballot papers marked “A”, “B” and “C” will now be distributed. The voting has thus begun. In accordance with resolution 71/323, of 8 September 2017, the names of the candidates that have been communicated to the Secretariat have been printed on the ballot papers for each of the regional groups. Also, additional blank lines corresponding to the number of vacant seats to be filled for each of the regional groups have been provided on the ballot papers for inscribing other names, as necessary. I request representatives to use only those ballot papers that have been distributed and to put an “X” in the boxes next to the names of the candidates for which they wish to vote and/or to write other eligible names on the blank lines. If the box next to the name of a candidate is checked, the name of that candidate does not have to be repeated on the blank line. The total number of checked boxes and/or handwritten names should not exceed the number of vacant seats to be filled as indicated on the ballot paper. 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. Accordingly, on the ballot papers marked “A”, for the African States and Asia-Pacific States, the total number of checked boxes and/or handwritten names should not exceed three; on the ballot papers marked “B”, for the Eastern European States, representatives may check only the box or write one name of an eligible Member State from the same region in the space provided; and on the ballot papers marked “C”, for the Latin American and Caribbean States, the total number of checked boxes and/or handwritten names should not exceed one. A ballot paper will be declared invalid if none of the names of the Member States on that ballot for which votes were cast belongs to the relevant region. If a ballot paper for a region contains one of the following categories of names of Member States, the ballot remains valid but the vote for a Member State within those categories will not be counted: first, the names of Member States that do not belong to the region concerned or, secondly, the names of Member States that are outgoing non-permanent members of the Security Council or that will continue to be non-permanent members of the Council next year. Finally, if a ballot paper contains any notation other than votes in favour of specific candidates, those notations will be disregarded.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group A — African and Asia-Pacific States (3 seats) Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 193 Abstentions: 0 Number of members present and voting: 193 Required two-thirds majority: 129 Number of votes obtained: Viet Nam: 192 Niger: 191 Tunisia: 191 Group B — Eastern European States (1 seat) Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 193 Abstentions: 2 Number of members present and voting: 191 Required two-thirds majority: 128 Number of votes obtained: Estonia: 111 Romania: 78 Georgia: 1 Latvia: 1 Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 193 Abstentions: 2 Number of members present and voting: 191 Required two-thirds majority: 128 Number of votes obtained: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: 185 El Salvador: 6

There remains one seat to be filled, from the Eastern European States. We shall therefore proceed to the first restricted ballot. The second round of balloting shall be restricted to the States from the Eastern European States that were not elected but that obtained the largest number of votes in the previous ballot, namely, Estonia and Romania. This is in accordance with rule 94 of the rules of procedure. 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. Members are requested to remain seated until all ballots have been collected. Ballot papers marked “B” will now be distributed. The voting has thus begun. I request representatives to use only those ballot papers that have been distributed and to put an “X” in the boxes next to the names of the candidates for which they wish to vote. For this second round of balloting the ballot papers will no longer contain a blank line, since the voting is restricted to those candidates listed on the ballot papers. Ballot papers marked “B” for the Eastern European States will be declared invalid if more than one box is marked with an “X” or if it contains a vote for a candidate other than those listed on the ballot papers, namely, Estonia and Romania. If a ballot paper contains any mark or notation other than a vote in favour of the candidates listed on the ballot, those marks and notations will be disregarded. We will now distribute the ballot papers for the vote.

The result of the voting is as follows: Group B — Eastern European States (1 seat) Number of ballot papers: 193 Number of invalid ballots: 1 Number of valid ballots: 192 Abstentions: 2 Number of members present and voting: 190 Required two-thirds majority: 127 Number of votes obtained: Estonia: 132 Romania: 58

I congratulate the States that have been elected members of the Security Council. I thank the tellers for their assistance in this election. This concludes our consideration of sub-item (a) of agenda item 115. Announcement regarding the results of the election of the Chairpersons of the Main Committees

I wish to inform members that the following representatives have been elected Chairpersons of five of the six Main Committees of the General Assembly at its seventy-fourth session and are accordingly members of the General Committee for that session: First Committee, Mr. Sacha Sergio Llorentty Solíz of the Plurinational State of Bolivia; Special Political and Decolonization Committee (Fourth Committee), Mr. Mohammed Hussein Bahr Aluloom of Iraq; Second Committee, Mr. Cheikh Niang of Senegal; Third Committee, Mr. Christian Braun of Luxembourg; and Sixth Committee, Mr. Michal Mlynár of Slovakia. I congratulate the Chairs of five of the six Main Committees for the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly on their election. I also wish to remind members that the election of the Chair of the Fifth Committee was postponed to a later date to be announced subsequently.