The 1981 United Nations Security Council election was held on 15 October 1981 during the Thirty-sixth session of the
United Nations General Assembly, held at
United Nations Headquarters in
New York City. The General Assembly elected
Guyana
Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
,
Jordan,
Poland,
Togo, and
Zaire (now
D.R. Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...
), as the five new non-permanent members of the
UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1982. Togo and Zaire were elected for the first time.
Rules
The Security Council has 15 seats, filled by five permanent members and ten non-permanent members. Each year, half of the non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms. A sitting member may not immediately run for re-election.
In accordance with the rules whereby the ten non-permanent UNSC seats rotate among the
various regional blocs into which UN member states traditionally divide themselves for voting and representation purposes, the five available seats are allocated as follows:
*Two for
African
African or Africans may refer to:
* Anything from or pertaining to the continent of Africa:
** People who are native to Africa, descendants of natives of Africa, or individuals who trace their ancestry to indigenous inhabitants of Africa
*** Ethn ...
countries (held by
Niger and
Tunisia)
*One for the Asian Group (now the
Asia-
Pacific Group), for the "Arab Swing Seat" (held by the
Philippines)
*One for
Latin America and the Caribbean (held by
Mexico)
*One for the
Eastern European Group
The Group of Eastern European States (EEG) is one of the five United Nations regional groups and is composed of 23 Member States from Eastern, Central and Southern Europe.
The Group, as with all the regional groups, is a non-binding dialogue ...
(held by
East Germany)
To be elected, a candidate must receive a two-thirds majority of those present and voting. If the vote is inconclusive after the first round, three rounds of restricted voting shall take place, followed by three rounds of unrestricted voting, and so on, until a result has been obtained. In restricted voting, only official candidates may be voted on, while in unrestricted voting, any member of the given regional group, with the exception of current Council members, may be voted on.
Result
Voting was conducted on a single ballot. Ballots containing more states from a certain region than seats allocated to that region were invalidated.
Source:
[U.N. General Assembly, 36th session. ''Provisional Verbatim Record of the Thirty-Eight Meeting Held at Headquarters, New York, On Thursday, 15 October 1981.'' (A/36/PV.35) 15 October 1981]
See also
*
List of members of the United Nations Security Council
References
External links
UN Document A/59/881Note Verbale from the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica containing a record of Security Council elections up to 2004
{{DEFAULTSORT:United Nations Security Council election,1981
1981 elections
1981
Events January
* January 1
** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union.
** Palau becomes a self-governing territory.
* January 10 – Salvadoran Civil War: The FMLN launches its first major offensiv ...
Non-partisan elections
1981 in international relations