S/PV.2333 Security Council

I should like to recall that at its 2321st meeting, on 21 December 1981, the Council adopted resolution 499 (1981), in which it decided that elections to fill the vacancy in the International Court of Justice should take place at a meeting of the Security Council and at a meeting of the General Assembly at its resumed thirty-sixth session. As will be recalled, this vacancy was caused by the death ofJudge Abdullah El-Erian on 12 December 1981. 8. Ballots containing votes for more than one candidate will be considered invalid. The Council will continue balloting to fill the vacancy until one of the candidates whose names appear on the ballot has obtained the required majority. At that stage I shall communicate the result to the President of the General Assembly and I shall request the Council to 9. It is now my intention, if I hear no objection, to select the names of two delegations to act as tellers to count the votes cast by members of the Council. lo. The delegations of Ireland and Guyana are those whose names have been drawn. I would ask each of those delegations to appoint one of their members to serve as teller. That being done, I invite the tellers to take a place at the table behind the Council table. 1 I. I take it that the Council is now ready to proceed with the election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Judge El-Erian. 12. I request the conference officer to distribute the ballots. Members should place a cross at the left of the name of the candidate for whom they wish to vote. 13. I take it that all the members of the Council have now voted, and I request the conference officer to collect the ballots. 14. All the ballots having been collected, the tellers will now count the ballots, 15. I would remind the Council that we decided yesterday that there would be two independent countings of the ballots by each of the two tellers.

On a point of order, I should like to say that I thought we had also decided that we would not begin the counting until we were aware that the Assembly had completed balloting in the sense of having cast the votes but not counted them. If in fact that is the case, then I assume we would begin to count.

I think that the Secretariat’s understanding of the decision was that the ballots would simply be collected, but that they would not be counted until it had been verified that the counting had been completed in the Genera] Assembly.

I am sorry, but my understanding was until the actual voting had been completed, not necessarily the counting.

That is right, until the voting has been completed. 20. I am informed by the Secretariat that the ballots are now being collected in the General Assembly. Once those ballots have been collected, we shall proceed with the counting. 21. I have now been informed that the ballots have been collected in the General Assembly. The As- 23. Mr. de PINIBS (Spain) (i/ztc/.l,l.ctalitrn :fiWl?l ~~~~~~~~~~~ Madam President, now that the balloting is finished, I should like to know why we cannot have the results. Yesterday we agreed that tie would begirl the vote after the voting had been concluded in the Assembly, but that as soon as the results here wer*t? known, we were entitled to be informed of them- I should appreciate being informed of the results.

I should like to advise the representative of Spain that the results of our balloting have not yet been communicated to me: the reason is that our Secretariat assistants are typing the letter by which we shall communicate the results to the General Assembly, I shall inquire now to see if &ve cannot have the results before the letter is in f&t typed. 25. Mr. de PINIl% (Spain) (intclin,.ctc,tiotl fi~mr Spanish): Madam President, past practice has been not to wait until the letter is written. The letter is written if the Assembly’s decision is the same as this body’s* So first you notify the members: if the Assembly’s decision is the same, then the letter is written,

I should like to inform the representative of Spain that I have now been given the results of the balloting in the Security Council. They are as follows: . Number of hurllots: I5 Nutnher of invalid hl1ot.s: 0 Number of blank hallots: 1 Notnlm of wlid l~ullots: I5 Required tmjot-ity: 8 Nutnlm of votes ohttrined: Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui . . . . , . . .*. . , , . . . , , 10 Mr. Ahmed Esmat Abde] Meguid , . , . . . . . . . 4

Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui hns accordingly received the required absolute majority of votes in the Security Council. I shall communicate the result to the President of the Genera] Assembly and I would request the Council to remain in session until we are formally informed by the President of the General Assembly of the results of the vote in thut body. :/: * 4:

I have just received the fo]]owing communication from the President of the Genera] Assembly: “I have the honour to inform you that, at the 107th Plenary meeting of the Genera] Assembly, “I note from your letter of the same date that, at the 2333rd meeting of the Security Council, Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui has also obtained a required absolute majority for the above-mentioned vacancy. 29. As both the Security Council and the General Assembly have agreed on the same candidate, the distinguished jurist Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui has been elected a member of the International Court of Justice for a term of office expiring on 5 February 1988. I should like to congratulate Mr. Bedjaoui and to wish him every success in the high office he will assume. “I have, therefore, informed the General Assembly that Mr. Mohammed Bedjaoui has been elected member of the International Court of Jus- HOW TO OBTAIN UMTED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS United Nations publications may be obtained liom bookstores and distributors throughout the world. Consult your bookstore or write to: United Nations, Sales Section, New York or Geneva. COMMENT SE PROCURER LES PUBLICATIONS DES NATIONS UNIES Les publications des Nations Unies sent en vente dans les librairies et les agences dtpositaires du monde enrier. Informez-vous aup& de votre libraire ou adressex-vous B : Nations Units. Section des ventes. New York ou Get&e. COMO CONSEGUIR PUBLICACIONES DE LAS NACIONES UNIDAS Las publicaciones de las Naciones Unidas estgn en venta en librerias y casas distribuidoras en todas partes de1 mundo. Consulte a su librero o dirijase a: Naciones Unidas, Secci6n de Ventas, Nueva York o Ginebra. -, Litho in United Nations, New York 00300 88-60YSY-April 1989---2,gg