COVID 19 Pandemic Leads To New Voting Procedure For UNGA Security Council Election

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a new method for the Security Council Election next month. This decision has been taken to maintain social distancing during the elections.

(Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

New Delhi: As coronavirus has become the new normal, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted a new procedure to conduct the Security Council Election next month in which India has an assured non-permanent seat. Instead of plenary meeting at the New York Headquarters in which the voting usually takes place, Reem Abaza who is the spokesperson for General Assembly President Tijjani Muhammad-Bande announced on Friday that the voters will be coming in small groups and vote through paper ballots, the delegates unanimously approved this procedure. For India, the election is mostly a formality as it is the only candidate for the Asia-Pacific seat for the two-year term starting in January 2021, so voting may not be necessary unless a country asks for a secret ballot under the procedure that has been adopted. To maintain social distancing, the delegates will be asked to come in small groups in different time slots to a designated place with the Secretariat staff present at the place, if no clear winner can be declared in the first round with a two-third majority then further round will be held in subsequent days. 10 non-permanent seats are allocated on a regional basis and the two-year terms and elections are staggered so that each year five are elected, India is unopposed for the Asia-Pacific seat and Mexico for the Latin America-Caribbean seat, there are contests for Africa and the Western Europe seats. Kenya and Djibouti are competing for the Africa seat. The West European region category includes certain other countries that do not fall into other regional groups. Canada, Ireland, and Norway are competing for the two seats in this group. Next January, India will succeed in Indonesia, which completes its two-year term and join Vietnam, which was elected to the other Asia-Pacific seat on the Security Council. The new system is called the Silence Procedure, under which the Assembly President circulates resolutions to all the members and if no one objects within 72 hours they are considered adopted.