1976 United Nations Security Council election

The 1976 United Nations Security Council election was held on 21 October 1976 during the Thirty-first session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Canada, the Federal Republic of Germany, India, Mauritius, and Venezuela, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1977. Both Mauritius and West Germany were elected members of the Council for the first time.

1976 United Nations Security Council election
21 October 1976
5 (of 10) non-permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council
Members before election

 Tanzania (Africa)
 Japan (Asia)
 Guyana (LatAm&Car)
 Italy (WEOG)
 Sweden (WEOG)

 New Members





Rules
See also: United Nations Security Council

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.[1][2] A sitting member may not immediately run for re-election.[3]

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,[4] the five available seats are allocated as follows:

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

The election was managed by then-President of the United Nations General Assembly Hamilton Shirley Amerasinghe of Sri Lanka. The United Nations had 146 member states at this time (for a timeline of UN membership, see Enlargement of the United Nations). Delegates were to write the names of the five member states they wished elected on the ballot papers. Voting was conducted on a single ballot. Ballots containing more states from a certain region than seats allocated to that region were invalidated.

Member Round 1[6]
 Venezuela136
 Mauritius134
 India132
 Canada126
 Federal Republic of Germany119
 Finland2
 Austria1
 Belgium1
 Bhutan1
 Burundi1
 Chile1
 Cuba1
 Denmark1
 Greece1
 Iceland1
 Kenya1
 Luxembourg1
 Madagascar1
 Philippines1
 Portugal1
 Spain1
 Turkey1
 Yugoslavia1
invalid ballots0
abstentions0
required majority92
ballot papers138

See also

References
  1. United Nations Security Council (2008), Repertoire of the practice of the Security Council, p. 178
  2. Conforti, Benedetto (2005), The law and practice of the United Nations, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, p. 61
  3. Charter of the United Nations, Article 23
  4. Resolution 1991 A (XVIII), dated 1963-12-17, in force 1965-08-31.
  5. "Asian group of nations at UN changes its name to Asia-Pacific group", Radio New Zealand International, 2011-08-31.
  6. "40th Plenary Meeting". United Nations. Retrieved 29 December 2013.
  • UN Document A/59/881 Note Verbale from the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica containing a record of Security Council elections up to 2004
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