Non-Permanent Members

The Security Council has ten non-permanent (elected) members who serve two-year terms. Five seats are elected each year by the General Assembly, requiring a two-thirds majority. Seats are distributed by regional group: three for Africa, two for Asia-Pacific, one for Eastern Europe, two for Latin America and the Caribbean, and two for Western Europe and Others.

Campaigning for a Council seat is a serious diplomatic effort that can take years. Countries lobby extensively across regional groups, make promises about their priorities, and sometimes engage in expensive campaigns. Contested elections can go through dozens of rounds of voting. In 2006, Guatemala and Venezuela went 47 rounds before Panama emerged as a compromise candidate.

How Elected Members Exercise Power

Without a veto, elected members might seem powerless. They are not. Here is how the E10 shape outcomes:

The pen-holder system: Elected members can draft and negotiate resolutions. Countries like Ireland and Norway have punched far above their weight by holding the pen on key files during their terms.

The ninth vote: Resolutions need nine affirmative votes. If the P5 are split 3-2, the side with only three P5 votes needs all ten elected members to reach nine. This gives the E10 collective leverage.

Moral authority: Elected members, especially from the Global South, can frame debates and set the normative agenda. When Kenya spoke during its 2021-2022 term about African perspectives on the Ukraine crisis, it shifted the conversation in ways the P5 could not.

Committee chairs: Elected members chair the Council's subsidiary bodies (sanctions committees, counter-terrorism committee, etc.), giving them procedural authority on specific issues.

Elected Members Who Changed the Record

Without a veto, elected members shape outcomes by holding the pen and building coalitions. Several landmark texts were driven by non-permanent members:

Worked example: the ninth vote

A substantive resolution needs nine 'yes' votes and no P5 veto. Imagine the P5 split 3–2 in favour of a text. The three supporting permanent members supply only three of the nine required votes, so they must win at least six of the ten elected members. If the E10 coordinate and withhold their votes, the resolution dies for lack of nine — even though no veto was ever cast. This is why a disciplined elected bloc can be as decisive as a permanent seat: nine is a number the P5 simply cannot reach alone.