Security Council elects non-permanent members

A delegate casts a ballot on behalf of his country during an UN Security Council non-permanent members election at the General Assembly, United Nations headquarters in New York, Oct 15, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

UNITED NATIONS - The UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Thursday elected Egypt, Japan, Senegal, Ukraine and Uruguay as non-permanent members of UN Security Council, which will serve a two-year term starting from Jan 1, 2016.

The five countries won the required two-thirds of votes for the non-permanent seats in the first ballot after being put forward by their regional groups.

The United Nations has 193 member states and a two-thirds majority of 129 votes is needed. The final results are Senegal with 187 votes, Japan with 184 votes, Egypt with 179 votes, while Ukraine winning 177 votes and Uruguay garnering 185.

The newly-elected members will replace the retiring members of Chad, Chile, Jordan, Lithuania, and Nigeria. They will join the other five non-permanent members of the Security Council, namely Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela.

The UN Security Council consists of five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members elected by the UNGA. 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.

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.