United Nations Security Council election, 2007

	‹ 2006 2008 ›
	United Nations Security Council election, 2007;
	October 16, 2007
	; Security Council after 2007 elections.

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The 2007 United Nations Security Council election was held on 16 October 2007 during the 62nd session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at UN Headquarters in New York City. The elections were for five non-permanent seats on the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 2008.

In accordance with the Security Council's rotation 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 were allocated as follows:

Two for Africa (held by the Republic of the Congo and Ghana)
One for Asia (held by Qatar)
One for Eastern Europe (technically "Countries with Economies in Transition", held by Slovakia)
One for Latin America and the Caribbean (held by Peru)

The five members (elected by a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly, in as many rounds of voting as it takes to achieve that majority) will serve on the Security Council for the 2008–09 period.

Seven countries had announced themselves as candidates for the five non-permanent seats on the Security Council for the 2008–2009 term. Vietnam, the most populous country that had never yet served on the Council, was running for the Asian seat. Burkina Faso (last served in 1985) and Libya (last served in 1977) were running for the two African seats. All three countries had received endorsements from their regional groupings. In addition, Costa Rica (last served in 1998) and the Dominican Republic (one of the few UN Charter members which had never served up to 2007) were competing for the one Latin American seat at stake. The Czech Republic (last served in 1995) and Croatia (never served) were competing for the Eastern European seat.

[edit] Results

Having been endorsed by their regional groups, Vietnam, Burkina Faso and Libya were elected easily, winning 183, 185 and 178 votes, respectively, of a total of 190 possible. Mauritania got two votes and Senegal got one, despite not having stood for election; there were no abstentions.

In the Eastern Europe region, 124 votes were needed to be elected. The results were as follows:

First round: Croatia 95 votes, Czech Republic 91 votes, four abstentions.
Second round: Croatia 106 votes, Czech Republic 81 votes, three abstentions.
Third round: Croatia 184 votes, Czech Republic 1 vote, four abstentions. (Czech Republic withdrew.)

In the GRULAC region, with 126 votes needed, the results were as follows: