The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday elected five new non-permanent members to the UN Security Council.

Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Latvia, and Liberia secured two-year terms starting in January 2026. Their tenure will run through the end of 2027 on the Council, which bears primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security.

They will replace Algeria, Guyana, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, and Slovenia, whose terms expire in December 2025.

The newly elected members will join Denmark, Greece, Pakistan, Panama, and Somalia, who were elected in 2024 and will serve until the end of 2026.

The Security Council consists of 15 members: five permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – all of whom hold veto power, and ten non-permanent members elected for staggered two-year terms.

Elections are conducted annually by secret ballot, with seats allocated by regional groupings. A candidate must secure a two-thirds majority of the 193-member General Assembly to be elected.

This year, 188 member states participated in the voting, and all five seats were decided in a single round.

In the African and Asia-Pacific group, Bahrain received 186 votes, the DRC garnered 183 votes, and Liberia secured 181 votes. One country abstained.

Latvia, representing the Eastern European group, received 178 votes, with 10 abstentions.

Colombia, contesting in the Latin America and Caribbean group, obtained 180 votes, with eight abstentions.

Latvia will be serving on the Security Council for the first time in its history. The other elected countries have previously held seats: Colombia seven times, the DRC twice, and both Bahrain and Liberia once each.

This year’s allocation of seats included two for Africa, one for Asia-Pacific, one for Eastern Europe, and one for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The distribution of non-permanent seats follows four regional groupings to ensure balanced representation.