Pakistan, Three Others, Win Security Council Seats
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 6:36PMA day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned officials in Islamabad about supporting terrorist networks, the General Assembly voted to elect Pakistan as a new member of the United Nations Security Council.
Guatemala, Morocco and Togo will also join the UN’s prestigious security body as new non-permanent members in January 2012.
Non-permanent members compete for seats within regional blocks and need to receive at least 2/3 of votes from the General Assembly’s 194 member states.
Guatemala and Pakistan each secured seats for America and Asia respectively, while Morocco took one of Africa’s two available spots in the the first round of voting.Togo eventually defeated Mauritania in a third round of voting for the other African seat.
Eastern Europe’s spot on the Council has yet to be decided, with both candidates Slovenia and Azerbaijan failing to receive support from a majority of states after nine rounds of voting. Security Council elections are expected to resume Monday morning.
All five eventual choices will be taking over from non-permanent members Lebanon, Brazil, Nigeria, Gabon and Bosnia Herzegovina, whose two year terms are set to expire at the end of 2011.