UN elects five new non-permanent members to Security Council

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday elected Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela to serve as non-permanent members on the Security Council.

The new members, selected in three rounds of voting, will serve on the Council for two-year terms between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2016.

These five countries replace retiring members Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, South Korea and Rwanda.

Angola Malaysia, Venezuela and New Zealand were elected in the first vote. The General Assembly then held two rounds of restricted balloting to elect Spain to fill the remaining seat on the council open to the Western European and Other States Group (WEOG).

The only real contest in the balloting was among New Zealand, Spain and Turkey for two seats from the WEOG.

New Zealand handily won on the first ballot with 145 votes, while Spain with 121 votes and Turkey with 109, failed to qualify.

The five overall seats available for election in 2014, distributed regionally, were - one seat for the African Group (currently held by Rwanda); one seat for the Asia- Pacific Group (currently held by the Republic of Korea); one seat for the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, (currently held by Argentina); and two seats for the Western European and Others Group (currently held by Australia and Luxembourg).

Lithuania will maintain the seat for the Eastern European Group for another year.

The five permanent Security Council members, which wield the power of veto, are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Along with Lithuania, the non-permanent members that will remain on the council until the end of 2015 are Chad, Chile, Jordan, and Nigeria.