Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela elected as non-permanent members of UNSC

Venezuela, Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand and Spain on 16 October 2014 were elected as non-permanent members of United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

They were elected after member states voted in support of these five nations after three rounds of voting. All these five new members received over two-thirds of the votes cast in a secret ballot.

The new members of the Security Council will begin their two-year appointment on 1 January 2015 and will serve on the Council until 31 December 2016.

These nations will join five other non-permanent members, namely Chad, Chile, Jordan, Lithuania and Nigeria.

On the other hand, Argentina, Luxembourg, South Korea, Australia and Rwanda will step down from their seats on 31 December 2014 to make way for the newly-elected members.

Angola Malaysia, Venezuela and New Zealand were elected in the first round of voting whereas Spain was elected after two rounds of restricted balloting to.

Spain and New Zealand were elected from the Western European and Other States Group.

Venezuela was elected unopposed from the Latin America and Caribbean seat whereas Malaysia and Angola were also elected unopposed from the Asian and African seat.

The five overall seats available for election in 2014 were distributed regionally and they were:
• One seat for the African Group (currently held by Rwanda)
• One seat for the Group of Asia- Pacific Group (currently held by the Republic of Korea)
• One seat for the Group of Latin American and Caribbean States, (currently held by Argentina)
• Two seats for the Western European and Others Group (currently held by Australia and Luxembourg)
• Lithuania will maintain for another year, the seat for the Eastern European Group

The five permanent Council members, which each wield the power of veto, are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.