For Your Information
Background to 2006 UN Security Council Election
In mid-October the UN General Assembly will
hold elections for five seats on the Security Council. The 2006 election has
attracted an unusual level of interest because of high profile contested
campaigns for the seats within two of the five regional groups. In the Asian
Group, Indonesia, Republic of Korea and Nepal are vying for the one available
seat. In the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, Guatemala and
Venezuela are in a hot contest, also for one seat. The elections from the
African Group (one seat) and the Western European and Others Group (two seats)
are uncontested. As a result, South
Africa, Belgium and Italy are assured of election. There is no election for the
seat from the Eastern European Group until next year.
Each year the UN General Assembly elects five
new non-permanent members to the Security Council for a two-year term. For
terms starting in odd years, in this case 2007-2008, one member from Africa,
one from Asia, one from Latin America, and two members from Western Europe and
Others Group are elected. For even years, the elected members are two from
Africa, one from Asia, one from Latin America, and the one Eastern European
member. The remaining five seats are permanent, belonging to the United States,
Russia, Britain, France and China.
Nominations are not required to stand for
election to the Council. Countries can simply declare their intention to run,
sometimes many years ahead, either by circular note to all members of the
United Nations or to the Chair of their regional grouping, or both. Since the
UN Charter establishes a geographic distribution for the ten elected seats on
the Council, candidacies are generally managed through processes developed by
each of the regional groups. The groups and seat distribution are as follows:
Asian Group (2 seats), African Group (3 seats), Latin American and Caribbean
Group (2 seats), Western European and Others Group (2 seats), and Eastern
Europe Group (1 seat). Australia, Canada and New Zealand are part of the
Western European and Others Group.
The groups have a rotating monthly
chairmanship. Each group meets at least once a month to share information. This presents an opportunity to review all of
the candidacies and can serve to facilitate agreements between members where
there are more candidacies than seats available to the group in a particular
election. This is the process which often enables the group to eventually reach
a "clean slate". The regional grouping's endorsement of a "clean
slate" will normally assure candidates of election in the General Assembly.
However, even if there is a "clean slate", a ballot is still
required. Within the regional groupings there are different established
practices. In the Western European group, the Nordic subgroup (made up of
Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden and soon to include Iceland) members have
an agreement among themselves to field an agreed Nordic candidate every four
years, a practice which has resulted in a regular Nordic presence in the Security
Council. The CANZ subgroup (Canada, Australia and New Zealand) have a similar
coordination process.
Elections to the Security Council are held by
secret ballot. A successful candidate requires a two-thirds majority vote. The
required majority in 2006 will be 128. The rules for voting state that if no
candidate obtains the required two-thirds majority in the first ballot, a second
ballot is held between the two candidates obtaining the largest number of
votes. In the three-way race for the Asian seat, if there is no clear winner in
the first ballot, the lowest polling candidate drops out and the contest then
continues to a second ballot between the top two candidates. Voting simply
continues until one candidate prevails, either by securing the required
majority, or the other withdraws. If neither candidate receives the required
majority in the second and third ballots, the rules state that votes may be
cast for another eligible member. This allows new candidates to come into the
process. The emergence of new candidates is rare but not unprecedented. In
1955, before the expansion of the Security Council and new geographic
distribution, Poland was competing with the Philippines, but as a result of a
stalemate in voting, Yugoslavia came into the race.
The UN Charter contains a provision that ensures that no member can become a de facto permanent member by being elected to continuously serve in the Security Council. This provision is reinforced by the rules of procedure of the General Assembly which state that a retiring member of the Security Council is not eligible for immediate re-election. In practice a number of countries have been elected a significant number of times. Brazil and Japan have served 18 years each; Argentina 16 years; India, Canada, Colombia and Pakistan 12 years each; Italy 10 years; Egypt, Poland and Netherlands 9 years each; Australia, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Panama, Spain, and Venezuela 8 years each. By contrast, 43 percent of the members of the United Nations (83 countries) have never served on the Council.