Two African countries – Niger and Tunisia – as well as Estonia, Saint

Vincent and the Grenadines, and Vietnam were elected Friday to

two-year terms on the U.N. Security Council.

The five will join the 15-nation body responsible for maintaining

international peace and security on Jan. 1, 2020.

There is usually little suspense in the General Assembly for the vote,

as regional groups typically pre-select a candidate from within their

bloc to run uncontested. This year, Tunisia, Niger and Vietnam ran

unopposed.

So did Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, until just hours before

Friday morning's vote, when El Salvador announced it would challenge

the tiny island nation for the one open seat in the Latin American and

Caribbean region.

Diplomats expressed surprise ahead of the vote as to why El Salvador

would come in at the last minute, when the regional bloc had agreed in

December to put up Saint Vincent as their candidate.

“You don’t do it like that,” one western diplomat said disapprovingly.

Most other countries appeared to agree, with El Salvador winning only

six of the 193 votes cast.

Eastern Europe did run a contested race this year, endorsing two

candidates, Estonia and Romania.

Estonia, which joined the U.N. in 1991 after the collapse of the

Soviet Union, has never served on the Security Council. It beat

four-time council veteran Romania after two rounds of ballots,

exceeding the necessary two-thirds majority needed.

Member states cast secret ballots and candidates must win a two-thirds

majority of votes to succeed, even if they are running uncontested.

Candidate countries cap off their often years-long campaigns with

parties in the lead-up to the vote.

Reaction

“I want to reiterate that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines views this

as an historic occasion,”

Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told reporters after the election. “We

are the smallest country ever to be elected as a non-permanent member

of the Security Council.”

The island nation has a population of just 110,000.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has aligned with the Maduro regime in

Venezuela.

“Non-interference, non-intervention, peaceful settlement of serious

difficulties pertaining to governance,” the prime minister said when

asked what his government's policy is toward Venezuela.

Vietnam had nearly unanimous support in the General Assembly, winning

192 of 193 votes.

“As Vietnam went through decades of war, we hope that we can bring to

the council the experience of Vietnam, the country that has been able

to rebuild after the war and deal with many other issues,” said the

president's special envoy Le Hoai Trung.

Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui said his nation would try

to be a “bridge builder” on the council and contribute to trying to

solve some of the most important peace and security issues.

Council dynamics

“With the election of Saint Vincent and Vietnam, the Security Council

could tilt a little towards China and Russia next year,” said Richard

Gowan, U.N. Director, International Crisis Group. “Saint Vincent has

stuck with Maduro in Venezuela, and Vietnam hews to a pretty robust

anti-Western line in U.N. debates.”

Tunisia and Niger will represent Africa on the council. Gowan told VOA

they could figure prominently if Libya and the Sahel continue atop the

agenda.

“It will be hard to ignore their views on issues like the spillover of

violence from Libya and the worsening security situation in Burkina

Faso,” he said.

The five new council members will replace Cote d’Ivoire, Equatorial

Guinea, Kuwait, Peru and Poland, whose terms end Dec. 31, 2019.

They will join the other non-permanent members — Belgium, the

Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia, and South Africa — as well as

the permanent five members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the

United States.

•Adapted from a VOA report.

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