Belgium, Italy and South Africa will on Monday be selected as non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council for the 2007/08 period, a spokesperson said on Friday.
The three countries, which enjoy the support of their respective regional groups, will be elected by secret ballot by the 192-member General Assembly to succeed Denmark and Greece and Tanzania respectively, Gail Binder-Taylor Sainte, the Assembly’s spokesperson, said.
Five non-permanent seats on the 15-member Security Council are up for grabs. Winners need a two-thirds majority and will take their seats on the panel on January 1.
But the selection of representatives for the Asian and Latin American/Caribbean groups is not as clear cut, with two candidates vying for each of the two slots available.
In Latin America, Venezuela and Guatemala are battling to succeed Argentina.
Washington is opposed to Venezuela, which is enjoying increasingly strong ties with Iran, North Korea and Cuba, a longtime communist foe dating back to the Cold War era. Washington is instead pushing for Guatemala.
In Asia, a vote will decide whether Indonesia or Nepal will take over the seat which Japan will relinquish on December 31.
The Security Council is made up of five veto-wielding permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and 10 non-permanent mebers, elected every year by groups of five for two-year mandates that cannot be immediately renewed.
Non-permanent members Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia will stay on the council until the end of 2007. – Sapa-AFP