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.