Azerbaijan elected to UN Security Council

The UN General Assembly on Monday elected Azerbaijan to a two-year term on the UN Security Council, putting the final touch on the election of five new non- permanent members to the most powerful UN body. Azerbaijan won 155 ballots in the 16th round of votes since the 193 members of the UN General Assembly began to cast their secret ballots to elect five new non-permanent members of the 15-nation Security Council on Friday. Earlier on Monday, Slovenia announced its decision to withdraw its bid for Security Council membership, leaving Azerbaijan the only candidate in the new round of ballots. But Azerbaijan has to win at least a two-thirds majority of votes from the 193 General Assembly members who were present and voted in the election. In the last round of ballots, 169 countries casted their votes with 24 abstentions. Therefore, Slovenia needs to win at least 115 votes required for a victory. In the Friday voting, Pakistan, Morocco and Guatemala were elected in the first round, while Togo won the election in the third round. To win election, a country must receive a two-thirds majority of those countries present and voting, regardless of whether or not they are the only candidate in their region. UN member states on Friday voted in the General Assembly by secret ballot for five non-permanent seats divided by geographical grouping -- three from the Africa and Asia-Pacific grouping, one from Eastern Europe, and one from Latin America and the Caribbean.