Update on the Security Council: Panama Officially In on the 48th Round

Before weighing in on U.S. elections, I wanted to follow-up on Chris Borgen’s helpful earlier posts (see links below) on the battle over the U.N. Security Council seat to note the final results of that Tuesday election. In the 48th round of voting, Panama decisively won the seat.

I include an International Herald Tribune story on the final resolution below:

Panama won a seat on the UN Security Council after Guatemala and Venezuela dropped out to end a deadlock.

In the 48th ballot Tuesday, Panama won 164 votes in the 192- member General Assembly, more than the 120 needed to win a two- year term starting Jan. 1. Venezuela got 11 votes, Guatemala 4 and Barbados 1.

The race, which began Oct. 16, became highly political because of the U.S. support for Guatemala and a speech by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela at the General Assembly in September in which he referred to President George W. Bush as “the devil.” A number of countries said those anti-Bush comments had hurt Venezuela’s chances.

Guatemala led Venezuela in all but one of the ballots, but could not muster the two-thirds support needed to win in the General Assembly.