From the New Year and two years ahead, Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia, and Liberia will become non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.
The countries were voted in by 188 of the UN's 193 member states. To be elected, a country must receive at least two-thirds of all votes, but the voting was undramatic, as no country received fewer than 170 votes.
The five countries will take over from Algeria, Guyana, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and South Korea, which are leaving the Security Council.
The five permanent members, the USA, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, and France, remain, as well as the five that took office on January 1 this year for a two-year period – Denmark, Greece, Panama, Pakistan, and Somalia.
