The five newly elected countries join Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland as non-permanent members of the UN Council.

UN General Assembly on Tuesday in New York elected Sierra Leone, Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea and Slovenia as non-permanent members of its Security Council.

The five newly elected countries join Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland as non-permanent members of the Council.

The five new members will take up seats currently occupied by Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates when their two-year terms end on Dec. 31.

The elected countries will join the premier body for maintaining international peace and security starting in January 2024.

They were among six countries vying for the five non-permanent seats around the Council's horseshoe-shaped table that will become vacant at the end of the year.

The Security Council is composed of 15 countries, five of which - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - are permanent members, granting them the right to veto any resolution or decision.

The 10 non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly which comprises all 193 UN member-states and is in line with geographical distribution by region.

Voting is conducted by secret ballot and candidates must receive a two-thirds majority, or 128 votes, even if they did not contest to be members.

Overall, 192 countries voted to fill three Council seats allocated to the African and Asia-Pacific Groups, and one each for Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Slovenia beat Belarus in the race for Eastern Europe, receiving 153 votes versus the latter's 38 votes, while Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone and the Republic of Korea ran unopposed.

(NAN)