The 1977 United Nations Security Council election was held on 24 October 1977 during the Thirty-second session of the United Nations General Assembly, held at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. The General Assembly elected Bolivia, Czechoslovakia, Gabon, Kuwait, and Nigeria, as the five new non-permanent members of the UN Security Council for two-year mandates commencing on 1 January 1978. Gabon and Kuwait were elected to the Council for the first time.
Rules
The Security Council has 15 seats, filled by five permanent members and ten non-permanent members. Each year, half of the non-permanent members are elected for two-year terms. A sitting member may not immediately run for re-election.
In accordance with the rules whereby the ten non-permanent UNSC seats rotate among the various regional blocs into which UN member states traditionally divide themselves for voting and representation purposes, the five available seats are allocated as follows:
Two for African countries (held by Benin and Libya) One for the Asian Group (now the Asia-Pacific Group), for the "Arab Swing Seat" (held by Pakistan) One for Latin America and the Caribbean (held by Panama) One for the Eastern European Group (held by Romania)
To be elected, a candidate must receive a two-thirds majority of those present and voting. If the vote is inconclusive after the first round, three rounds of restricted voting shall take place, followed by three rounds of unrestricted voting, and so on, until a result has been obtained. In restricted voting, only official candidates may be voted on, while in unrestricted voting, any member of the given regional group, with the exception of current Council members, may be voted on.
Result
The election was managed by then-President of the United Nations General Assembly Lazar Mojsov of Yugoslavia. The United Nations had 150 member states at this time (for a timeline of UN membership, see Enlargement of the United Nations). Delegates were to write the names of the five member states they wished elected on the ballot papers. Voting was conducted by secret ballots. Ballots containing more states from a certain region than seats allocated to that region were invalidated. There were no nominations prior the vote.