afrol News, 24 October - Algeria, Benin, Brazil, the Philippines and Romania were elected yesterday evening to become the next five non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Cameroon and Guinea are leaving their seats.

The quintet will take up their seats on 1 January, replacing Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico and Syria, which step down as scheduled at the end of their two-year terms. The new group will serve on the Council until the end of 2005.

The five new members were elected according to a pre-arranged geographical distribution, which allocated three seats to African and Asian countries, one seat to an Eastern European nation and one seat to a Latin American or Caribbean state.

The new composition of the UN Security Council will be seen slightly more pro-US than the outgoing, given that the Philippines are replacing Syrian and that Benin is replacing Cameroon. Further, Algeria's presence in the Council is a drawback for Morocco, regarding the Western Sahara conflict.

The terms of the other five non-permanent members - Angola, Chile, Germany, Pakistan and Spain - are due to run out on 31 December 2004, when five new members will replace them. China, France, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States are the Council’s five permanent members.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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