The UN General Assembly on Friday elected South Africa, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, Belgium and Germany to serve during 2019-2020 in the UN Security Council, Xinhua reported.
Germany and the Dominican Republic each received 184 votes in favor, South Africa 183, Belgium 181 and Indonesia 144.
The elected five are to join on Jan. 1, 2019 the five permanent members of the 15-nation council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States and replace the five non-permanent members elected in 2016 to serve during 2017-2018 -- Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Bolivia, the Netherlands and Sweden, who are ending their two-year terms (excluding the Netherlands) on Dec. 31 this year.
During the 2016 Security Council elections, Italy and the Netherlands agreed to split a two-year term, in which Italy would serve from Jan. 1, 2017 to Dec. 31, 2017 and the Netherlands would subsequently serve from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2018 because Italy and Netherlands were tied 95-95 after a total of five rounds of secret ballots.
