By Takudzwa Mashumba
Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Chad, Lithuania and Chile are the newly elected five members of the United Nations Security Council.
The five candidates endorsed but the regional groups faced no opposite race for the first time ever in several years according to the UN report.
“The countries were elected in the first round of voting by the 193 member General Assembly. Lithuania was at the top with 187 votes filled by Nigeria and Chad with 186 votes, Chad with 184 votes and lastly Saudi Arabia with 176 votes,” reads the report.
The five newly elected member states will assume office on January 1, 2014.
The five countries have replaced Azerbaijan, Guatemala, Morocco, Pakistan and Togo.
Chad, Saudi Arabia and Nigeria have been highly criticized and their election to the security council has also been denounced by many for failing to put their house in order.
Chad has recently been accused of employing child soldiers while Saudi Arabia has been criticized for human rights violation and Nigeria for failing to protect civilians from attacks by the Boko Haran terrorist’s network.
Philip Bolopion, UN director for Human Rights said “Nigeria should end chronic abuse by the security forces in the north and thus the prestige seat at the world’s foremost diplomatic table should prompt the elected states to put their houses in order”.
Some analysts have said that Chad should not have an oversight of the UN peace-keeping mission as long as it still recruits child soldiers.
Security Council seats are highly coveted because they give a country a strong voice in matters dealing with international peace and security.
The 15 member council include five permanent states with veto power which are USA, Russia, China, Britain and France and 10 non permanent members are elected after every two years.
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