The United Nations Security Council elected five new non-permanent members.

Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Slovenia and South Korea will become new members of the 15-member UN body responsible for maintaining international peace and security. They will replace Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), whose terms are due to expire.

The Security Council is the only UN body that can make legally binding decisions such as imposing sanctions and authorizing the use of force. It has five permanent members with veto power: the UK, China, France, Russia and the US.

To ensure geographical representation, seats are allocated to regional groups. However, a candidate country still needs to win the support of more than two-thirds of the votes in the General Assembly to be elected.

In the latest election, 192 countries voted to fill three Security Council seats allocated to the African Group and the Asia- Pacific Group, and one seat each to the Eastern European Group and the Latin American and Caribbean Group.

As a result, Guyana got 191 votes, Sierra Leone - 188, Algeria -184 and South Korea - 180. Slovenia won 153 votes to surpass Belarus (38 votes) for the race for the Eastern European region.

Besides the five permanent members and five newly elected members, the remaining members of the United Nations Security Council are Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland.

Bui Huy (according to UN, Reuters)

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