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1st LD: Ethiopia, Bolivia, Sweden elected as non-permanent members of UN Security Council

Xinhua, June 29, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UN General Assembly on Tuesday elected Ethiopia, Bolivia and Sweden as non-permanent members of UN Security Council to serve a two-year term starting from Jan. 1, 2017.

The 193-member General Assembly has been voting to elect five non-permanent members of the 15-nation council on Tuesday morning. A two-thirds majority of 129 votes is needed for a country to be elected.

After the first round of the vote, Ethiopia won 185 votes; Bolivia gathered 183; and Sweden garnered 134. Two more seats need to be elected in a new round of vote.

The two remaining seats are expected to be filled by a country from the Asia-Pacific region and another from Western European and other states.

Kazakhstan and Thailand are competing for the Asia-Pacific seat; while Italy and the Netherlands are competing for the seat of Western European and other states.

The UN Security Council consists of five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members elected by the UN General Assembly. Five non-permanent members are elected every year to join the five permanent and veto-wielding members of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

This year, the elections, which were previously held in October, have been moved to June in a bid to leave more time for elected member states to prepare for their terms.

According to the rules, the Security Council non-permanent seats should be distributed as five from African and Asian states; one from Eastern European states; two from Latin American states and two from Western European and other states. Enditem