UN General Assembly continues voting on final Security Council non-permanent seat

The final non-permanent seat on the Security Council remains up for grabs as the United Nations General Assembly resumed voting Tuesday.

Candidates for Latin America and Caribbean Group Venezuela and Guatemala were still deadlocked in their bid for the final non- permanent seat in the Security Council. Though U.S.-backed Guatemala won all the 12 rounds on Tuesday, it failed to get the required two thirds majority.

In the latest 22nd round Tuesday, when 120 votes would have been enough to secure victory, Guatemala received 102 votes and Venezuela 77. There were 12 abstentions.

Guatemala led Venezuela Monday in every round except the sixth when the two tied.

The two countries are contending to serve as a non-permanent council member for a two-year term starting 1 January 2007, replacing Argentina.

Balloting will continue until a state from the region achieves the required majority. There is no limit to the number of rounds of voting and in 1979-80 there were a record 155 ballots before Mexico was chosen from the Latin American and Caribbean Group to serve a two-year term.

On Monday, assembly members, following an agreed geographic allocation, elected Belgium, Indonesia, Italy and South Africa to serve as non-permanent members starting Jan. 1, 2007. They will replace Denmark, Greece, Japan and Tanzania when their terms end on Dec. 31 this year.

The council's five other non-permanent members, whose terms end on Dec. 31, 2007, are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia.

Source: Xinhua