A/77/PV.75 General Assembly

The five outgoing non-permanent members are: Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates. Those five States are not eligible to be re-elected today. 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 2024: Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland. 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 2024, two are from among the African and Asia-Pacific States, one is from among from among the Latin American and Caribbean States and two are from among the Western European and other States. 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 among the African and Asia-Pacific States, one from among the Eastern European States and one from among the Latin American and Caribbean States. The ballot papers reflect that 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 from each region — 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 number of 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 or candidates 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 those 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, Algeria, the Republic of Korea and Sierra Leone. For the one vacant seat from among the Eastern European States, two candidates have been communicated, namely, Belarus and Slovenia. For the one vacant seat from among the Latin American and Caribbean States, one candidate has been communicated, namely, Guyana. 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. Any announcements, including those concerning withdrawals of candidatures, should therefore be made prior to the commencement of the voting process, that is to say, before the announcement of the beginning of the voting process. 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. In accordance with resolution 71/323, of 8 September 2017, the names of States that have been communicated to the Secretariat at least 48 hours prior to the election today 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 Member States, from the relevant region, for which they wish to vote and/or to write other eligible names on the blank lines. If the box next to a State printed on the ballot paper is checked, the name of that State does not need 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 paper will be declared invalid if it contains more names of Member States from the relevant region than the number of seats allocated to it. Accordingly, on the ballot papers marked “A”, for the African 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, the total number of checked boxes and/or handwritten names should not exceed one; 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, the ballot remains valid, but the vote for those Member States will not be counted: Member States that do not belong to the region concerned or Member States that continue to be members of the Council during this year and the next year. If a ballot paper contains any notation other than votes in favour of eligible candidates, those notations will be disregarded.

In the interest of time, the General Assembly will now proceed to consider the other items announced in The Journal of the United Nations while the ballots are being counted. The General Assembly has thus concluded this stage of its consideration of sub-item (a) of agenda item 116.