General Assembly Elects Parliamentarian of Turkey Seventy-Fifth Session President, Also Filling 18 Vacancies in Economic and Social Council
India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Norway Win Non-Permanent Member Seats in Security Council for 2021-22
The General Assembly elected Volkan Bozkir, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, as President of its seventy-fifth session and filled vacancies on the Security Council and Economic and Social Council, with Member States voting at United Nations Headquarters on 17 and 18 June, in line with restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The world body held a secret ballot on 17 June, filling all vacancies except one seat on the Security Council. That vacancy was filled by a restricted ballot held on 18 June.
Tijjani Muhammad Bande (Nigeria), President of the seventy-fourth session of the General Assembly announced voting results of the two‑day process from the General Assembly Hall. At the outset, the world body elected its new president, by a vote of 178 in favour, with 11 abstentions.
For detailed voting results, please visit www.un.org/pga/74/2020/06/17/results-of-the-elections-held-on-17-june-2020 and www.un.org/pga/74/2020/06/18/results-of-the-election-held-on-18-june-2020.
Security Council
The Assembly elected five States as non-permanent members of the Security Council for two-year terms spanning 2021-2022. On 17 June, it elected: India, with 184 votes; Ireland, with 128 votes; Mexico, with 187 votes; and Norway, with 130 votes.
It elected the fifth State — Kenya, with 129 votes — by a restricted ballot on 18 June because, during the first round of voting on 17 June, neither Djibouti, with 78 votes, nor Kenya, with 113 votes, received at least 128 votes, the required two-thirds majority.
The five elected States will fill Council seats to be vacated on 31 December by Belgium, Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia and South Africa. Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Viet Nam will continue as elected members, completing the second year of their respective terms in 2021. All new Council members will take their seats on 1 January 2021.
The new members were elected in accordance with the following pattern: two from African and Asia-Pacific States, two from Western European and Other States and one from Latin American and Caribbean States.
Economic and Social Council
The Assembly then elected 18 States to the Economic and Social Council to serve three-year terms, beginning 1 January 2021. They are, along with the number of votes they received in parenthesis, as follows: Argentina (182), Austria (178), Bolivia (179), Bulgaria (186), France (179), Germany (176), Guatemala (181), Indonesia (186), Japan (185), Liberia (190), Libya (182), Madagascar (184), Mexico (180), Nigeria (191), Portugal (182), Solomon Islands (187), United Kingdom (172) and Zimbabwe (181).
The new members were elected according to the following pattern: five from African States; three from Asia-Pacific States; one from Eastern European States; four from Latin American and Caribbean States; and five from Western European and Other States.
The procedure for voting was outlined in accordance with General Assembly decision 74/557, adopted by the silence procedure on 29 May, “Procedure for holding elections by secret ballot without a plenary meeting during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic” (document A/74/L.67). (See Press Release GA/12247.)
[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.]