United Nations, June 11 (SocialNews.XYZ) Seventeen states were elected into the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), the coordinating body for the economic and social work of UN agencies and funds, for a three-year term.
The states were elected on Friday by secret ballot with a two-thirds majority of the member states present and voting in the UN General Assembly, Xinhua news agency reported.
Elected were Botswana, Cape Verde, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea from African states; China, Laos, Qatar, South Korea from Asia-Pacific states; Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica from Latin America and Caribbean states; Denmark, Greece, New Zealand, Sweden from Western European and other states; Slovakia and Slovenia from Eastern European states.
They were elected for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2023.
Of the 17 states, Botswana, China, Colombia, Denmark, Greece, New Zealand and South Korea were re-elected.
In a by-election for rotation within the Western European and other states group, Liechtenstein was elected for a one-year term beginning January 1, 2023. It will replace Austria.
After Friday's voting, one seat remains to be filled for the Eastern European group for a three-year term beginning January 1, 2023, as no other candidate besides Slovakia and Slovenia could obtain a two-thirds majority after six rounds of voting.
In the first round, Russia won 118 votes, 10 votes short of a two-thirds majority. It entered a second-round runoff with North Macedonia, which gained the second-largest number of votes in the group after Russia.
In the subsequent rounds, first restrictive then unrestrictive, neither Russia nor North Macedonia could gain enough votes for election. A new set of rounds will take place at a later date to be determined.
ECOSOC has 54 members, which are elected each year by the General Assembly for overlapping three-year terms. Seats on the council are allocated on the basis of geographical representation with 14 seats to African states, 11 to Asia-Pacific states, six to Eastern European states, 10 to Latin American and Caribbean states, and 13 to Western Europe and other states.
Source: IANS
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