UNITED NATIONS, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly on Friday elected South Africa, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, Belgium and Germany to serve during 2019-2020 in the UN Security Council.

Photo: Xinhua

Germany and the Dominican Republic each received 184 votes in favor, South Africa 183, Belgium 181 and Indonesia 144.

The elected five are to join on Jan. 1, 2019 the five permanent members of the 15-nation council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States and replace the five non-permanent members elected in 2016 to serve during 2017-2018 -- Ethiopia, Kazakhstan, Bolivia, the Netherlands and Sweden, who are ending their two-year terms (excluding the Netherlands) on Dec. 31 this year.

During the 2016 Security Council elections, Italy and the Netherlands agreed to split a two-year term, in which Italy would serve from Jan. 1, 2017 to Dec. 31, 2017 and the Netherlands would subsequently serve from Jan. 1, 2018 to Dec. 31, 2018 because Italy and Netherlands were tied 95-95 after a total of five rounds of secret ballots.

Six member states -- South Africa, Indonesia, the Maldives, the Dominican Republic, Belgium and Germany were running for the five available seats. Indonesia and the Maldives were contesting the one available seat for the Asia-Pacific Group, while the other four candidates ran unopposed.

The Maldives received 46 votes in favor.

A country must obtain the votes of two-thirds of the member states present and voting at the General Assembly session in order to secure a seat on the Council, regardless of whether the election is contested. This means that a minimum of 129 positive votes are required to win a seat if all 193 UN member states are present and voting.

Altogether 190 member states cast votes for the Asia-Pacific Group election and a minimum of 127 votes were required to secure a seat.

The East European Group is not contesting any seat this year as its seat, held by Poland through 2019, comes up for election every other year.