The UN General Assembly elected five non-permanent members of the Security Council (UNSC) for the 2026-2027 term on Tuesday.
Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Latvia and Liberia won the General Assembly elections.
Bahrain received 186 votes, the DRC 183, Liberia 181, Latvia 178 and Colombia 180, replacing Algeria, Guyana, Korea, Sierra Leone and Slovenia.
The new members will serve as non-permanent members of the UNSC from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2027.
Colombia has previously served as a non-permanent member seven times, the DRC twice and Bahrain and Liberia once each.
Latvia will serve as a non-permanent member for the first time.
The Security Council, which has five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – also has 10 non-permanent members who are elected for two-year terms. The five non-permanent members are elected each year.
In elections held on the basis of geographical distribution, two seats are allocated to the African Group, one to the Asia-Pacific Group, one to the Latin American and Caribbean Group and one to the Eastern European Group.
Candidates must receive two-thirds of the votes, which is equivalent to 129 votes out of the 193 members of the General Assembly.
