1978 United Nations Security Council election

Rules

The Security Council has 15 seats, filled by five permanent members and ten non-permanent members. Each year, half of the non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms. A sitting member may not immediately run for re-election.

In accordance with the rules whereby the ten non-permanent UNSC seats rotate among the various regional blocs into which UN member states traditionally divide themselves for voting and representation purposes, the five available seats are allocated as follows:

• One for African countries (held by Mauritius)
• One for countries from the Asian Group (now called the Asia-Pacific Group) (held by India)
• One for Latin America and the Caribbean (held by Venezuela)
• Two for the Western European and Others Group (held by Canada and West Germany)

To be elected, a candidate must receive a two-thirds majority of those present and voting. If the vote is inconclusive after the first round, three rounds of restricted voting shall take place, followed by three rounds of unrestricted voting, and so on, until a result has been obtained. In restricted voting, only official candidates may be voted on, while in unrestricted voting, any member of the given regional group, with the exception of current Council members, may be voted on.

Candidates

Prior to the election, Mr. Francis of New Zealand, in his capacity as chairman for the month of the Western European and Others Group, informed the General Assembly that there were three candidates from the group to the two vacancies, namely Malta, Norway, and Portugal. Next, Mr. Albornoz of Ecuador spoke for the Latin American Group and named Jamaica as the group's endorsed and single candidate.

Result

The election was managed by then-President of the United Nations General Assembly Indalecio Liévano of Colombia. The United Nations had 151 member states at this time (for a timeline of UN membership, see Enlargement of the United Nations). Voting was conducted on single ballots. Ballots containing more states from a certain region than seats allocated to that region were invalidated.

In the first round of voting, Jamaica, Norway, and Zambia were elected, but the results for the Asian and Western European groups were inconclusive. In the second round, voting was restricted to the two most successful candidates of each group, namely Bangladesh and Japan for Asia, and Malta and Portugal for Western Europe, respectively. This second round of voting was also inconclusive, and the meeting rose.

Later the same day, on the 51st plenary meeting, prior to the third round of voting, Mr. Abe of Japan rose to speak and withdrew Japan's candidature, also stating that "the Government of Japan hopes to serve on the Security Council when there is an appropriate opportunity in the future". Hence Bangladesh was elected in the third round (second restricted), while the results for Western Europe remained inconclusive. Mr. Huq of Bangladesh rose to speak to thank the member states on the election and Japan on their withdrawal. The fourth round (third restricted) was also inconclusive. In the fifth round (unrestricted), Portugal was elected, and the election was concluded.

References

References

1. United Nations Security Council. (2008). "Repertoire of the practice of the Security Council". United Nations Publications.
2. Conforti, Benedetto. (2005). "The law and practice of the United Nations". Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
3. [https://www.un.org/en/documents/charter/chapter5.shtml Charter of the United Nations, Article 23]
4. [https://undocs.org/A/RES/1991(XVIII) Resolution 1991 A (XVIII)], dated 1963-12-17, in force 1965-08-31.
5. [http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=62791 "Asian group of nations at UN changes its name to Asia-Pacific group"], ''Radio New Zealand International'', 2011-08-31.
6. "United Nations General Assembly, Thirty-third Session, Official Records, 50th Plenary Meeting, Agenda Item 15: Election of five non-permanent members of the Security Council". United Nations.
7. "United Nations General Assembly, Thirty-third Session, Official Records, 51st Plenary Meeting, Agenda Item 15: Election of five non-permanent members of the Security Council (concluded)". United Nations.