Fifty-ninth General Assembly

Plenary

32^nd Meeting (AM)

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ELECTS ARGENTINA, DENMARK, GREECE, JAPAN, UNITED REPUBLIC

OF TANZANIA TO TWO-YEAR TERMS ON SECURITY COUNCIL, BEGINNING 1 JANUARY 2005

The General Assembly this morning elected Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Japan and the United Republic of Tanzania to serve as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms beginning on 1 January 2005.

They will fill the seats vacated on 31 December by Angola, Chile, Germany, Pakistan and Spain.  Algeria, Benin, Brazil, Philippines and Romania will continue to serve as elected Council members during 2005, for the second of their two-year terms.

At the top of today’s meeting, the Assembly, acting on the recommendations of its General Committee (document A/59/250/Add.2), decided to include an additional item -- observer status for the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States in the General Assembly -- on the agenda of its current session, and to allocate it to the Sixth Committee (Legal).

Also acting on the General Committee’s recommendation, the Assembly decided to split its planned joint debate on the role of diamonds in fuelling conflict, and the prevention of armed conflict, following a request by Canada, the current Chair of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme for Rough Diamonds.

According to a letter, dated 8 October, from the Permanent Representative of Canada to the President of the General Assembly (document A/59/424), the decision to combine those two items for debate –- originally set for 1 November –- had been made when the timing of the respective reports was not known.  The report for the debate on conflict diamonds would be available in early November, but the report on the prevention of conflict would not be ready until January 2005.  So, the Assembly decided that the debate be separated and rescheduled to a later date.

The Assembly will meet again on Monday, 18 October, at 10 a.m. to consider the Secretary-General’s reports on progress in implementation and international support for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Decade to Roll Back Malaria in Developing Countries, Particularly in Africa, 2001-2010.

Elections

The five non-permanent members were to be elected according to the following pattern:  two from Africa and Asia, two from Western Europe and Other States and one from Latin America and the Caribbean.  There was an understanding to the effect that, of the two States to be elected from Africa and Asia, one should be from Africa and one from Asia.

The representative of Eritrea withdrew his State’s candidature in favour of the United Republic of Tanzania, and reserved its right to submit its candidature during the next election for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council.

The meeting suspended at 10:36 a.m. and resumed at 11:37 a.m.

The results of the balloting were as follows:

African and AsianStates

Number of ballot papers:                           189

Number of invalid ballots:                           0

Number of valid ballots:                           189

Abstentions:                                         0

Number of members voting:                          189

Required majority:                                 126

Number of votes obtained:

United Republic of Tanzania                        186

Japan                                              184

Bhutan                                               1

Latin American and CaribbeanStates

Number of ballot papers:                           189

Number of invalid ballots:                           0

Number of valid ballots:                           189

Abstentions:                                         1

Number of members voting:                          188

Required majority:                                 126

Number of votes obtained:

Argentina                                          188

Western European States

Number of ballot papers:                           189

Number of invalid ballots:                           0

Number of valid ballots:                           189

Abstentions:                                         0

Number of members voting:                          189

Required majority:                                 126

Number of votes obtained:

Greece                                             187

Denmark                                            181

Having obtained the required two-thirds majority, Argentina, Denmark, Greece, Japan and the United Republic of Tanzania were elected to the Council.

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