General Assembly Elects 4 New Non-permanent Members to Security Council, as Western and Others Group Fails to Fill Final Vacancy

Membership Will Consider Proposal for Italy, Netherlands to Split 2-Year Term

In multiple rounds of voting, the General Assembly elected four new non-permanent members to the Security Council today, but was unable to fill a fifth seat after a highly-contested campaign.

Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Bolivia and Sweden were all elected to serve as non-permanent members of the Council for the next two years.  After five rounds of voting, however, neither Italy nor the Netherlands met the required two-thirds majority for election.  As a result, they announced a proposal whereby they would divide the term, with each serving one year on the Council.

In announcing the proposal – requiring endorsement by the Western European and Other States Group, Bert Koenders, Foreign Minister of the Netherlands, said Italy would serve from 2017 to 2018, with his own country serving out the balance from 2018 to 2019.  Paolo Gentiloni, Foreign Minister of Italy, said that by that proposal, his country and the Netherlands hoped to send a message of unity between two European States.

Norway’s representative, speaking on behalf of the Western European and Other States, said the Group would meet on Wednesday, 29 June, to discuss the proposal.  A procedure would then be put forward for the General Assembly’s consideration.

All newly elected States will fill seats to be vacated on 31 December by Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela.  Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay will remain elected Council members during 2017, completing the second year of their respective terms at the end of that year.  All Council members elected today will take their seats on 1 January 2017.

The non-permanent members were elected in accordance with the following pattern:  two seats for the African and Asia-Pacific States; one seat for the Latin American and Caribbean States; and two seats for the Western European and Others Group.

Ethiopia, Bolivia and Sweden met the required two-thirds majority in the first round of voting, while Kazakhstan was elected in the second round (first restricted), having out-balloted Thailand for the required two-thirds majority.

With the remaining Western European and other States seat still vacant, the General Assembly then moved on to a third (second restricted), fourth (third restricted) and fifth (first unrestricted) round of voting, in which neither Italy nor the Netherlands met the required two-thirds majority.

The General Assembly will resume voting on a date and time to be announced.