The vote for the rotating seat on the United Nations Security Council was held today at the U.N. headquarters in New York and the most that we can say this evening is that Guatemala is well ahead, but not well enough. As we've reported, Guatemala and Venezuela are vying for the seat. The U.S. backs Guatemala strongly, but Belize has asker her 14 sister nations in CARICOM not to support Guatemala because of its territorial claim on Belize.
To win the two year seat, either nation needs two-thirds of the General Assembly, or 124 votes. But after six rounds, both countries were tied with 94 votes.
News just in says that after ten rounds, Guatemala had taken a decided lead. The tenth round ended with 77 votes for Venezuela and 110 for Guatemala. In the early rounds, Guatemala had a decided advantage, earning as many as 116 votes to Venezuela's 70.
But 124 votes is the magic number, and until either nation reaches that number, the voting continues. And there is precedent to suggest that it could continue for a while. In 1979, Cuba and Colombia went through 154 rounds of voting over three months with each failing to get two-thirds of the votes required for victory -- and finally Mexico was picked as a consensus alternative.
With the early impasse, observers say it's not inconceivable that a compromise candidate could emerge. Voting stars again tomorrow with the eleventh round. With Belize having cast its lot so completely in Venezuela's camp, it would be preferable for our foreign affairs office that if Chavez cannot win, that a compromise candidate would appear. Prospectively, the countries discussed for those alternates are Costa Rica, Panama and Uruguay.
