Portugal and Austria defeated Germany for seats on the powerful but deeply divided U.N. Security Council on Wednesday in a hotly contested race after intense campaigning.
The 10 rotating seats on the 15-member Security Council are earmarked for different regions of the world. The assembly elects five countries by secret ballot every year to serve two-year terms alongside the council’s five permanent veto-wielding members — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.
In the other contested race, after four rounds of voting in the 193-member General Assembly, Kyrgyzstan defeated the Philippines by a vote of 143-49 and will join the council for the first time.
Zimbabwe, the African candidate, and Caribbean candidate Trinidad and Tobago had no opponents and both were elected with more than 180 votes.
In the race for the two seats for the group of mainly Western nations, Portugal received 134 votes and Austria 131 votes, while Germany, Europe’s economic powerhouse which had served six previous terms on the council, received 104 votes.
Austria’s foreign ministry said its election capped a 15-year campaign and is a “strong international sign of confidence” in the country.
The five new members will take up their seats on Jan. 1. They will replace Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama and Somalia.
The Security Council is mandated under the U.N. Charter with ensuring international peace and security, but it has failed in the three major current conflicts because of the veto power of Russia on Ukraine and of the United States, Israel’s closest ally, often on Gaza and on Iran.
There have been decades of efforts to reform the Security Council to reflect the geopolitical realities of the current world, not of the post-World War II era 80 years ago, when the United Nations was established. But they have all failed, though a new attempt is underway.
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