Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 25 / Trend, S.Agayeva /
Azerbaijan has been elected as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 2012-2013, gaining 155 votes from the UN member countries.
Before the last round of voting, Slovenian Foreign Minister Samuel Zbogar announced the withdrawal of his country's candidature as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council. In a voting round prior to this statement, Azerbaijan gained 116 votes, and Slovenia only 77.
In the last round 155 countries voted for Azerbaijan, 24 countries abstained and another 13 still voted for Slovenia.
In general, in each of six previous voting rounds Azerbaijan gained more votes than Slovenia, but was unable to collect 129 votes necessary for the election.
The UN headquarters in New York has today continued the elections of non-permanent Security Council members for 2012-2013.
Azerbaijan nominated its candidacy for a non-permanent UNSC member from the Eastern European group. Hungary and Slovenia in addition to Azerbaijan have claimed for one place from this group.
Several rounds of the voting, within the elections for a non-permanent membership of the UNSC in 2012-2013 held at the UN headquarters in New-York, from Eastern European countries ended without result on Oct.21. Hungary left out the elections, as it received few votes.
Azerbaijan and Slovenia continued struggling.
None of the countries could overcome the barrier in two-thirds vote which is necessary by the UN Charter. Azerbaijan did not get just 14 votes to win elections.
So it was decided to postpone the voting to Monday, Oct. 24.
According to the results of voting on other candidates, the new non-permanent UNSC members are Guatemala, Morocco, Togo and Pakistan.
The Council is composed of five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - and ten non-permanent members. Ten non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms and not eligible for immediate re-election. Contrast to the "Big Five", they do not have veto power.
According to regulations, the election of non-permanent members is performed by secret
ballot.
All of the nine candidate countries, except Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and
Guatemala, previously were elected non-permanent members of the UNSC.
Based on the Article 23 of the UN Charter, the General Assembly elects ten non-permanent Security Council members, paying attention in the first instance to the country's participation in the maintenance of international peace and security and achieve other objectives.