Azerbaijan received the two-thirds support of U.N. member states needed for a Security Council seat Monday after its lead competitor Slovenia dropped out.
Azerbaijan and Slovenia went into a second day of balloting Monday after each failed to get the two-thirds majority needed from the General Assembly for the sole eastern European seat on the U.N.'s most powerful body.
In a voting round prior to this statement, Azerbaijan gained 116 votes, and Slovenia only 77.
In the last round 155 countries voted for Azerbaijan, 24 countries abstained and another 13 still voted for Slovenia.
In general, in each of six previous voting rounds Azerbaijan gained more votes than Slovenia, but was unable to collect 129 votes necessary for the election.
The UN headquarters in New York has today continued the elections of non-permanent Security Council members for 2012-2013.
Azerbaijan nominated its candidacy for a non-permanent UNSC member from the Eastern European group. Hungary and Slovenia in addition to Azerbaijan have claimed for one place from this group.
Several rounds of the voting, within the elections for a non-permanent membership of the UNSC in 2012-2013 held at the UN headquarters in New-York, from Eastern European countries ended without result on Oct.21. Hungary left out the elections, as it received few votes.
None of the countries could overcome the barrier in two-thirds vote which is necessary by the UN Charter. Azerbaijan did not get just 14 votes to win elections.
So it was decided to postpone the voting to Monday, Oct. 24.
According to the results of voting on other candidates, the new non-permanent UNSC members are Guatemala, Morocco, Togo and Pakistan.
The Council is composed of five permanent members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - and ten non-permanent members. Ten non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms and not eligible for immediate re-election. Contrast to the "Big Five", they do not have veto power. According to regulations, the election of non-permanent members is performed by secret ballot.
All of the nine candidate countries, except Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Guatemala, previously were elected non-permanent members of the UNSC.
Immediately after the voting in the exclusive interview to AzerTAc, Azerbaijan Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov congratulated the people of Azerbaijan. He emphasized that Azerbaijan did much for this diplomatic success.
"We support our country and express our gratitude to all the UN member-states. Of course, we were waiting for the success after passing through 17 stages of the voting procedure. On Friday it was clear that the majority of the UN General Assembly member states support the candidacy of Azerbaijan," the minister said.

AzerTAc