S/PV.2761 Security Council

As only four candidates have been elected as members of the International Court of Justice, the Security Council and the General Assembly Will now proceed, independently of one another , and in accordance with the provisions of Article 11 of the Statute of the Court, with the election of One candidate for the seat remaining vacant. Document S/19158 contains the curricula vitae of the candidates. All candidates whose names ,appear on the ballot paper are eligible. Article 10, paragraph 1, of the Statute indicates that: "Those candidates who obtain an absolute majority of votes in the General Assembly and in the Security Council shall be considered as elected-" The absolute majority in the Security Council is eight votes. The voting will be by secret ballot. When we proceed to the vote, members of the Council will receive a ballot containing the names of all the candidates. Only those candidates whose names appear on the ballot paper are eligible. Members of the Council will indicate the candidate for whom they wish to vote by placing an "X" against the name on the ballot paper. Any ballot containing votes for more than one candidate will be considered invalid. When one candidate has obtained an absolute majority of votes, I shall notify the President of the General Assembly Of his name and I shall request the Council to remain in session pending the receipt from the President of the General Assembly of the result of the vote in the Assembly. (The President) If there is no objection, I propose to appoint the same tellers as at the previous meeting. Since there is no objection, I invite the tellers to take a place at the tables behind the Council table. At the invitation of the President, Mr. Nwaneampeh (Ghana) and Mr. Mfula (Zambia) acted as tellers. .> The PRESIDENT: I take it that the Counc.il is now ready to proceed with the election of one member of the International Court of Justice. Since there is no objection, it is so decided. . (The President) I shall now ask the Conference Officer to distribute the ballots. Members of the Council should indicate the candidate for whom they wish to vote by placing an "X" to the left of the name on the ballot paper. A vote was taken by secret ballot. ***

I take it that all the members of the Council have now voted, and I ask the Conference Officer to collect the ballots. All the ballot papers have been collected. I should like to remind the Council that the ballots will not be counted until it has been verified that the ballot papers in the General Assembly have been collected. The Council will remain in session pending the receipt of that infbrmation. I have now been informed that the ballot papers have been collected in the General Assembly. The counting of the ballots in the Security Council will now begin. The tellers will now count the ballots. There will be two independent countings of the ballots, one by each of the tellers. * * *

The result of the voting is as followS: Number of ballot papers: 15 Number of invalid ballots: 0 Number of valid ballots: 15 Required majority: a Number of votes obtained: Mr. Jo& Sette-Camara (Brazil) . . . . . . . . . . . ..a Mr. Mohamed Shahabuddeen (Guyana) . . . . . . . ...7

Mr. Sette-Camara has accordingly received the required * absolute majority of votes in the Security Council. I shall communicate the result of the vote to the President of the General Assembly:' I request the Council to remain in session while we wait for the result of the voting in the Assembly. * * * The PEESIDENTt I have received from the President of the General Assembly the following letter: "I have the honour to inform you that at the 65th plenary meeting of the General Assembly, held today for the purpose of electing five members Of the International Court of Justice, the following candidate obtained an absolute majority of votes in the General Assembly: Mr. Mohamed Shahabuddeen. "Accept, Sir, the assurances of my highest consideration." As a result of the independent voting in the Security Council and in the General Assembly, a different candidate has obtained the required majority Of Votes in each body. Therefore: in accordance with the provisions of Article 11 of the Statute of the Court, it will be necessary to hold a third meeting to fill the remaining vacancy. About an hour ago, I had a telephone call from the President of the General Assembly in which he proposed that a third meeting be held at 10 a.m. on Friday. I agreed to that. But now, as I understand it, a discussion ensued in the Assembly, which is now suspended, concerning the timing of that third meeting, SPeCificallY whether it should be held tonight or another day. It is thus possible that the General Assembly will propose to hold a third meeting tonight, perhaps in 15 or 30 minutes' time. I propose therefore to adjourn this meeting and to speak with the President Of the General Assembly. Does any member wish to make a comment about the timing of the third meeting? It appears;hat no member wishes to make a statement at this stage. The meeting rose at 8.20 p.m.