Pakistan win Security Council seat

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan, Morocco and Guatemala on Friday won seats on the UN Security Council for 2012-13 in a vote by the UN General Assembly.

All three got more than the two-thirds majority required from the 193 United Nations members on the first round of voting. Two other non-permanent seats -- one for Europe and one for Africa -- were left to be decided in at least one new round of voting.

Pakistan, which got 129 votes, exactly the two-thirds majority required, will now be on the 15-member Security Council with regional rival India for one

year.

Morocco secured 151 votes. Togo and Mauritania were to face off in a new vote for the second available seat for Africa.

Guatemala secured the Latin American seat unopposed.

Neither Azerbaijan (74 votes), Slovenia (67) nor Hungary (52) got close to the two-thirds mark and so the available European seat went to a second round.

The five new nations will replace Bosnia for Europe, Brazil from Latin America, Arab state Lebanon and Africa's Gabon and Nigeria, who will all vacate their council seats on December 31.

The new countries will start their two-year term on January 1.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011