Meeting of States Parties

to Law of Sea Convention

144^th & 145^th Meetings (AM & PM)

States Parties Elect Six Members to International Tribunal for Law of the Sea,

Leaving Additional Seat to Be Filled in Second Day of Balloting

 

At the midpoint of its annual session, the States parties to the Convention on the Law of the Sea today elected six members to the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, but failed to fill one additional seat, forcing a second day of voting tomorrow.

Voting by secret ballot, the Meeting of States Parties sought to fill a total of seven seats on the Tribunal in two phases of voting.  During the first, four rounds of voting were held to fill one seat allocated to the Group of African States, one to the Group of Asian States, two seats to the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, one to the group of Eastern European States and one to the Group of Western European and Other States.  According to the voting procedures, the seventh member was to be chosen during a second phase of balloting from the pool of unelected candidates from the African, Asian and Western European and Other Groups, but the Meeting was unable to begin that phase.

In the first round of balloting for the first phase, the following candidates were elected to the Tribunal for nine-year terms beginning on 1 October 2011:

Zhiguo Gao (China) from the Asian Group, with 141 votes; Markiyan Z. Kulyk (Ukraine) from the Eastern European Group, with 143 votes; Anthony Amos Lucky (Trinidad and Tobago) and Elsa Kelly (Argentina) from the Latin American and Caribbean Group, with 142 votes and 137 votes, respectively.

No candidates for the seat allocated to the African Group received the required two-thirds majority.  Tafsir Malick Ndiaye ( Senegal) received 65 votes; Kathleen Quartey Ayensu ( Ghana), 47 votes; Sayeman Bula-Bula ( Democratic Republic of the Congo), 22 votes; and Francis Lokossa ( Benin), 7 votes.

Candidates for the seat allocated to the Western European and Other States Group also failed to gain the required two-thirds majority, with Jean-Pierre Cot ( France) receiving 83 votes and David Joseph Attard ( Malta), 61.

After a second round of voting failed to produce the needed majorities for either seat, Ghana’s representative said that his country’s candidate would, in the spirit of African unity, withdraw from the voting on the understanding that he would still be considered for the “floating” seat to be filled during the second phase of voting.  Consequently, Mr. Ndiaye ( Senegal) was elected in the third round, with 139 votes.

Before the fourth round of voting, Malta’s representative announced that her delegation was withdrawing its candidate for the regional seat, saying that he would also remain in the running for the “floating” seat.  The Meeting then elected Mr. Cot ( France) with 142 votes.

Also today, Robert Eric Borje ( Philippines), Chair of the Credentials Committee, said 110 credentials had been approved and another 40 would likely follow suit.  The Meeting then decided to include a reference to the new credentials in its report.

The Meeting of States Parties will reconvene at 10 a.m. on Thursday, 16 June, to continue its annual session.

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For information media • not an official record