United Nations, Oct 14: Algeria, Benin, Brazil, the Philippines and Romania are expected to be elected to the Security Council for a two-year term beginning January 1 next. They face no contest and would be formally elected by the General Assembly on October 23, sources at the UN said adding they will replace Cameroon, Guinea, Syria, Bulgaria and Mexico whose term expires on December 31 next.
Originally, a contest was expected between Benin and Mauritania for one of the seats but assembly officials say that Mauritania has dropped out of the race.
The council has ten non-permanent members who are elected for two years term and five of them retire each year. The non-permanent members whose terms expires on December 31 next year and would be on the council for 2004 are Algeria, Pakistan, Chile, Germany and Spain. The election is held on regional basis and generally the regional groups endorse the candidates. But if a regional group cannot agree on one candidate or a country wants to contest its regional seat, then the assembly holds a secret ballot to decide the winner. Besides the ten non-permanent members, the council has five veto wielding permanent members - the United States, Britain, Russia, France and China. Bureau Report