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UNITED NATIONS, Oct 29 (AFP) - The U.N. General Assembly will vote Friday to renovate five of the Security Council's 10 rotating members, as six countries elbow each other for the honor.
Argentina and Oman have been assured a place in the decision-making body, but Rwanda, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria, Belarus and the Czech Republic are in close competition for the remaining three.
The 184 members of the General Assembly will decide by a two-third majority later Friday who will replace Venezuela, Hungary, Morocco, Cape Verde and Japan in the Security Council.
The 15-member group consists of five permanent members (Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States) and 10 non-permanent members, half of whom are renewed every year.
The Asian group of nations have already settled on Oman as one of the replacements and the Latin American group has chosen Argentina, General Assembly spokeswoman Cynthia Henry said.
But there is still indecision in the European group which has not been able to choose between the Czech Republic and Belarus. Some diplomats said the Czechs appeared to have the advantage.
But it is among the members of the African group where the competition is still wide open, despite the fact that Rwanda, as a representative of both central and eastern Africa has a slight edge over Guinea Bissau and Nigeria, both from the western part of the continent.
A place on the Security Council affords a country some influence over world affairs for two years. Non-permanent members Brazil, New Zealand, Pakistan, Djibouti and Spain will continue enjoying that privilege until December 1994.
The General Assembly vote coincides with an ongoing debate on whether to expand the permanent members of the council to include Germany, Japan and some large nations in the developing world.
Germany, France and Britain have drawn up a draft resolution calling for a working group to take up the issue at the 49th U.N. General Assembly next year.
ras/fgf AFP AFP
