2008 United Nations Security Council election

Unsuccessful candidates

Elected members

The five elected members after the 2008 elections are:

Uganda for Africa, replacing South Africa.
Japan for Asia, replacing Indonesia.
Mexico for Latin America and the Caribbean, replacing Panama.
Turkey for the Western European and Others Group, replacing Belgium.
Austria for the Western European and Others Group, replacing Italy.

Both Mexico and Uganda ran unopposed for their seats within their regional groups, while Japan faced competition in the Asian region from Iran, and Austria and Turkey in the Western European and Others region had opposition from Iceland.
The election of Japan as a member of the Security Council marks the nation's tenth time there, the longest tenure up until then of any nation excluding its permanent members.

Detailed results

Both Iceland and Iran were contending for spots on the council. Iceland was considered an unlikely choice for the Western European and Others Group, and its recent financial crisis further hurt its chances.
Iran lost the Asia seat to Japan. Japan is the second-largest financial contributor to the UN and is thought by many to be a candidate for a permanent Security Council seat. Iran, by contrast, has had Security Council sanctions imposed on it for its nuclear program.
Voting was by secret ballot. The official UN results showed:

192 ballot papers were distributed in each election.
For the two African and Asian seats the votes were: Uganda 181; Japan 158; Iran 32; Madagascar 2; with one abstention.
For the one Latin American and Caribbean seat the votes were: Mexico 185; Brazil 1; and six countries abstaining.
For the two Western European and Other seats the votes were: Turkey 151; Austria 133; Iceland 87; Australia 1; with no abstentions.
Since the winners each received more than two-thirds of the non-abstaining votes, there were no further rounds of voting.