General Assembly, in Silence Procedure, Adopts Decision to Hold June Elections for Non-Permanent Security Council Members, Other Main Body Vacancies
The General Assembly adopted a decision on 29 May to hold elections to fill vacancies in the Security Council, Economic and Social Council and its Main Committees amid current COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.
The world body adopted decision 74/557, “Procedure for holding elections by secret ballot without a plenary meeting during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic” (document A/74/L.67), under a procedure put in place on 27 March for taking decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Following that procedure, outlined in decision 74/544, the present decision had been kept under silence until 4 p.m. on 29 May.
By the terms of decision 74/557, the Assembly decided to hold the election of non-permanent members of the Security Council and the election of members of the Economic and Social Council in June 2020, simultaneously, without holding a plenary meeting of the General Assembly, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, the rules of procedure and the established practice of the Assembly. The elections will be held according to arrangements set out in the annex to the decision, which provides extensive details on when, where and how ballots will be cast in person at a designated venue and counted.
The Assembly also decided to apply mutatis mutandis the provisions of the present decision to other elections of the General Assembly during the seventy-fourth session, in which the number of candidates exceeds the number of seats to be filled, or where a Member State requests a secret ballot, even if the number of candidates does not exceed the number of seats to be filled. It further decided to take note of the results of any of the elections mentioned above at its first plenary meeting held after the cessation of the precautionary measures as soon as the circumstances allow.
In adopting the decision, the Assembly authorized the Main Committees to apply mutatis mutandis the provisions of the present decision to the election of the Chairs of the Main Committees of the General Assembly at its seventy-fifth session, in the event that a secret ballot becomes necessary.
[Under decision 74/544, “Procedure for taking decisions of the General Assembly during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‑19) pandemic”, adopted on 27 March 2020, the Assembly President is authorized to circulate, after consultation with the General Committee, its draft decisions to all Member States under a silence procedure of at least 72 hours. If the silence is not broken, the decision should be considered adopted. On 15 May 2020, through decision 74/555 (document A/74/L.65), the silence procedure was extended until the end of June 2020. (See also Press Releases GA/12244 and GA/12245.)
The final version of decisions adopted during the resumed part of the General Assembly’s seventy-fourth session will be contained in the Assembly’s official record (document A/74/49 (Vol. III)) after editorial review.]