BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

08/11/2006

Belarus elected as member of UN Economic and Social Council

UNITED NATIONS, November 8 (Itar-Tass) -- The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday elected Belarus as a member of the U.N. Economic and Social Council.

One hundred and fifty six of the 190 delegations voted in favour of Belarus, and 12 for Bulgaria. Twenty-two countries abstained. Support of two thirds or 112 U.N. member countries were required to be elected. Bulgaria withdrew its candidacy before the concluding vote round.

Seventeen of this year's 18 vacancies were filled already in the first round last Thursday. However, Bulgaria and Belarus competed for the second place from the East European group. The first was taken by Romania.

Following nine vote rounds, including on Tuesday, did not name the winner, though Belarus's advantage grew each time. In the next to the last round, Belarus gained 114 votes, while Bulgaria had 76. In the situation, the Bulgarian delegation decided to withdraw.

The ECOSOC, which assists the General Assembly in promoting international economic and social cooperation and development, unites 54 member countries.

Thus, elected to the organisation for the 2007-09 period are Algeria, Barbados, Belarus, Bolivia, Indonesia, Iraq, Cabo Verde, Kazakhstan, Canada, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Malawi, Romania, Salvador, the United States, Somalia, Sudan and the Philippines.

Places in the council are given according to the geographic representation principle -- fourteen to Africa, eleven to Asia, six to Eastern Europe, ten to South America and the Caribbean region and 13 to Western Europe and others.

Source:

http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?NewsID=10961658&PageNum=0

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