The UN’s Economic and Social Council will meet on Wednesday to elect the 41-member executive board of the new UN Women agency. Members will be chosen through one of two streams – nominees from the five regional groups and nominees from top contributors to the entity.
International outrage over the nomination of Iran as one of the Asian states has prompted two new candidates to enter the race, according to officials with Cambodian and Japanese missions this morning. Details are forthcoming and will be posted here as soon as possible. The two new candidates at Timor-Leste and the Philippines.
UPDATE: The AFP is reporting that the Philippines withdrew from the race on Monday, leaving 11 candidates for the 10 Asian seats on the Board. This raises the stakes for another candidate, such as Iran, to withdraw to avoid a last place showing.
UPDATE II, 9:30am, 10 November: It is confirmed that Philippines has withdrawn.
Known candidates from each of the regional groups, as of 12:00pm 9 November, include:
| Stream | Candidates |
| African Group (10 seats) |
Angola, Cape Verde, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Libya, Nigeria, Tanzania
|
| Asian Group (10 seats) | Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Korea, Timor-Leste |
| Eastern European Group (4 seats) | Albania, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine |
| Latin American & Caribbean Group (6 seats) | Argentina, Brazil, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Peru, St. Vincent & the Grenadines |
| Western European & Others (5 seats) | Denmark, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Sweden |
| Top Contributors (4 seats) | Norway, United Kingdom, United States, Spain |
| Top Developing Country (2 seats) Contributors | Saudi Arabia, Mexico |
The election will take place on Wednesday afternoon morning when ECOSOC meets at 10:00am per procedures adopted last month by ECOSOC . Uncontested slates will be elected without a formal vote. For contested slates, the top vote-getting candidates that receive a majority of those ECOSOC members present and voting will be elected; if all 54 ECOSOC members are present, 28 votes will be required to be elected.
