UN General Assembly elects five non-permanent UNSC members

ASTANA. KAZINFORM The United Nations General Assembly elected Côte d'Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Kuwait, Peru and Poland as non-permanent members of the Security Council for the next two years, the Organization's website reads.

In a separate by-election, the Assembly voted in favor of the Netherlands assuming the Council seat that Italy was due to vacate on 31 December. The two Member States had earlier agreed to share the two-year term, beginning on 1 January 2017, after a winner failed to emerge after multiple rounds of voting to select a candidate from among the Western European and Other States.

To secure a non-permanent seat on the Council, a candidate country must garner the votes of two-thirds of the Member States present at the General Assembly session. If all 193 UN Member States are present tomorrow, this means winning a seat will require 129 positive votes.

The non-permanent seats are allocated according to a rotation pattern set by the Assembly back in 1963, to ensure a proportionate representation over time from the different parts of the world: five from African and Asian States; one from Eastern European States; two from Latin American States; and two from Western European and Other States.