UN, June 8. /TASS/. Niger, Tunisia, Vietnam, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Estonia were elected non-permanent UN Security Council members for 2020-2021, UN General Assembly President Maria Fernanda Espinosa has announced.

The General Assembly picked the new Security Council members in a secret ballot on Friday.

Two of the five seats were contested: El Salvador competed with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to represent the Latin American and Caribbean group; and Romania and Estonia in the East European group. Estonia and Romania gathered 111 and 78 votes in the first round, respectively, and Estonia won the runoff with 132 votes versus 58 for Romania.

The five newly elected nations will replace Equatorial Guinea, Poland, Peru, Kuwait and Cote-d’Ivoire.

Every year, five countries are elected to the 15-member Council (10 of whom are non-permanent) for a two-year term, according to a geographical rotation to ensure fair regional representation: five from African and Asian and Pacific States; one from Eastern Europe; two from Latin American States; and two from Western European and Other States (WEOG).

The mandate of the remaining five non-permanent members - Belgium, Dominican Republic, Germany, Indonesia and South Africa - will expire on December 31, 2020.