The 1996 United Nations Security Council election was held on 21 October 1996 at United Nations Headquarters in New York City during the 51st session of the United Nations

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

. The General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year terms commencing on 1 January 1997. The five candidates elected were

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, Kenya, Portugal, and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Geographic distribution

In accordance with the General Assembly's rules for the geographic distribution of the non-permanent members of the Security Council, and established practice, the members were to be elected as follows: one from Africa, one from Asia, one from Latin American and the Caribbean Group (GRULAC), and two from the Western European and Others Group (WEOG).

Candidates

There was a total of eight candidates for the five seats. Only the single seat for the African Group was uncontested; the only candidate was Kenya. India and Japan both put forth their candidacies for the single seat of the Asian Group.

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

and Costa Rica were candidates for the single GRULAC seat. For the two seats reserved for the Western European and Others Group, there were three candidates:

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, Portugal, and Sweden.

Results

Voting proceeded by secret ballot. For each geographic group, each member state could vote for as many candidates as were to be elected. There were 181 ballots in each of the elections.

African and Asian States

Latin American and Caribbean States

The first round of voting was inconclusive, as neither Costa Rica nor Bolivia succeeded at securing a 2/3 majority. However, Edgar Camacho-Omiste of the Bolivian delegation then said to the Assembly that his country had signed an agreement with Costa Rica by which the two countries agreed that support would be given to the delegation obtaining the larger number of votes in the first round of balloting. A second round of voting still occurred.

Western European and Others Group

In the first round, Sweden had won its seat, but the other remaining seat was not determined yet, as neither Portugal nor Australia had secured a 2/3 majority. For this a second round of voting was held.

End Result

With Kenya, Japan, and Sweden securing their respective victories in the first round of voting, and India having been defeated, a second round of voting was called for to ascertain the remaining two seats. With Bolivia stepping down from its candidacy, Costa Rica was elected with an overwhelming majority of votes. In the Western European and Others Group, Portugal won over Australia in the second round. This gave the following result: Costa Rica, Japan, Kenya, Portugal, and Sweden were elected to serve two-year terms at the United Nations Security Council commencing 1 January 1997.

References

United Nations document GA/9138UN Document A/51/PV.39
Official record of General Assembly meeting, 21 October 1996, 10 a.m. {{DEFAULTSORT:United Nations Security Council election,1996 1996 elections

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

1996 in international relations