UN sets voting rules for Security Council seat
Secret ballot arranged for June to pick Canada, Norway or Ireland
OTTAWA— The United Nations has confirmed that the election for non-permanent seats on the Security Council — which pits Canada against Norway and Ireland — will take place in June under unprecedented new rules to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The 193 ambassadors will cast their votes on behalf of their countries in a secret ballot with the three candidates vying for two available temporary seats on the UN’s most powerful body.
But the vote won’t take place during a full meeting of the General Assembly because New York has become the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak and that has forced UN diplomats to work from home and rely on video conferencing.
Instead, the ambassadors will be notified in advance to come to a designated venue at UN headquarters — a staggered, solitary procession that will see the world’s leading diplomats presenting their UN security passes and then being given paper ballots.
The ambassadors will be assigned different time slots to come to the UN to cast their ballots to avoid a mass gathering during the pandemic.
The details were released in a memo that has been under consideration by the UN ambassadors for more than a week, and that carried a Friday-night deadline to reach a consensus.
“Enabling the (General Assembly) to carry out its essential duties is one of my top priorities during this challenging time,” Tijjani MuhammadBande, the Nigerian diplomat currently serving as the president of the General Assembly, said in a tweet on Friday night.
Marc-Andre Blanchard, Canada’s ambassador to the UN, said the country is ready for a June vote if it can be done in a safe way and carried out with respect for UN voting rules.
“This is uncharted territory. This has never been done,” Blanchard said in a recent interview.
“We need to make sure the institutions are actually adapted to this reality,” he added.
“This is not a military war we are facing. It’s a health-care crisis and the biggest economic and financial crisis that we have seen since 1929.”
The vote was originally set for June 17. The new rules do not specify exactly when the ballot will occur, other than sometime in the month.
Two of the competing countries will need at least 128 votes each, or two-thirds support of the assembly, to win a two yearterm that would begin next year. That could mean multiple rounds of voting.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been courting the support of voting blocs in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean because European countries are expected to rally around Norway and Ireland. This past week, Trudeau co-hosted a major UN meeting on rebuilding the economy after the pandemic.