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Bloc Voting in the General Assembly

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2009

M. Margaret Ball
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Extract

The spectre of bloc voting has haunted the United Nations since the Charter was first debated at San Francisco. Since then, the influence of certain groups of states in affecting the outcome of elections has occasioned considerable comment, and it has been suggested that the same groups have been inordinately powerful in deciding substantive issues. Some highly tentative conclusions as to the validity of these contentions may be drawn from a study of certain matters which have come before the Assembly during its first five sessions.

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Articles
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International Organization , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , February 1951, pp. 3 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © The IO Foundation 1951

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References

1 General Assembly, Official Records (2d session), p. 9Google Scholar.

2 Ibid. (1st special session), p. 2–3.

3 Ibid. (1st session, 1st part), p. 69–70.

4 For example, the election of vice-presidents at the third session, part I resulted in the selection, on the first ballot, of China (46 votes), France (44), USSR (41), United Kingdom (41), United States (41), Mexico (29) and Poland (28). Nevertheless, the Philippines received 25 votes, and 23 other states received from 8 to 1 votes each (ibid., p. 25–26).

5 Brazil received 47 votes, Egypt 45, Mexico 45, Poland 39, Netherlands 37, Canada 33, Australia 28, Iran 6, Norway 5, Czechoslovakia 4, Denmark 2; a number of other states received 1 each (ibid. [1st session, 1st part], p. 82–84).

6 Ibid. (1st session, 2d part), p. 975–976.

7 Ibid. (2d session), p. 320–749.

8 Ibid., p. 323, 327. One of the problems here, of course, was the fact that six nonpermanent seats were not sufficient to permit representation of all the areas that desired to be represented.

9 Ibid. (4th session), p. 102–103.

10 Ibid.

11 New York Times, October 8, 1950.

12 General Assembly, Official Records (1st session, 2d part), p. 976–1231Google Scholar; ibid. (2d session), p. 329–333.

13 Ibid. (1st session, 1st part), p. 361.

14 Document A/C.1/128.

15 General Assembly Official Records… First Committee (1st session, 2d part), p. 301Google Scholar. Throughout this article the first figure refers to votes in favor, the second to negative votes and the third to abstentions.

16 Ibid., p. 303.

17 Ibid., p. 304; ibid., Official Records (1st session, 2d part), p. 1222.

18 Ibid., Official Records… First Committee (2d session), p. 430; ibid., Official Reeords (2d session), p. 1095–1096.

19 Ibid., p. 1096.

20 Document A/C.1/450.

21 General Assembly, Official Records… First Committee (3d session, 2d part), p. 239Google Scholar; Ibid., Official Records (3d session, 2d part), p. 501.

22 New York Times, November 5, 1950.

23 See documents A/624, A/657 and A/704.

24 Document A/742.

25 General Assembly, Official Records (3d session, 1st part), p. 757Google Scholar. The following voted against the amendment: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the Soviet bloc, Benelux, Scandinavia, France, Iceland, China and the United States; the following abstained: India, Pakistan, South Africa, Afghanistan, Thailand.

26 General Assembly, Official Records… Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question (2d session), p. 222–223Google Scholar; Ibid., Official Records) (2d session), p. 1424.

27 Ibid., p. 1424–1425.

28 Ibid., p. 1313, 1353–1354.

29 Document A/1222; General Assembly, Official Records (4th session), p. 607Google Scholar.

30 For a more extensive discussion of these viewpoints, see Bivlin, Benjamin, “The Italian Colonies and the General Assembly,” International Organization, III, p. 459–470Google Scholar.

31 Ibid., III, p. 466–467.

32 Document A/C.1/466.

33 General Assembly, Official Records… First Committee (3d session, 2d part), p. 391Google Scholar. This is further substantiated by the statement of Mr. Arce (Argentina), after Italian trusteeship for Somaliland had been voted down by the plenary session. He “recalled that, with the purpose of reaching a concrete and positive solution, a group of Latin-American Republics, upholding their, principles and granting concessions on certain points, had reached an agreement conceraing the draft resolution which had been submitted to the General Assembly by the First Committee. He was sure that all delegations were aware that if a single one of the points of that compromise resolution failed, the entire proposal would fail, since a whole group of Latin American Republics was prepared to vote against the draft resolution in its entirety” (ibid., Official Records [3d session, 2d part], p. 590.)

34 Ibid., Official Records… First Committee (3d session, 2d part), p. 391–395.

35 Ibid., Official Records (3d session, 2d part), p. 587.

36 Ibid., p. 593.

37 Ibid., p. 595–596.

38 Ibid. (1st session, 2d part), p. 1286.

39 Ibid. (2d session), p. 650–651.

40 Ibid. (3d session, 1st part), p. 592.

41 Document A/C.4/L.61.

42 General Assembly, Official Records… Fourth Committee (4th session), p. 272Google Scholar.

43 Ibid., Official Records (4th session), p. 536.

44 Ibid., p. 537; ibid., Official Records… Fourth Committee (4th session), p. 282.

45 Ibid., Official Records (4th session), p. 461.

46 Ibid., Official Records… Fourth Committee (4th session), p. 170.

47 Ibid., p. 171.

48 Ibid., Official Records (4th session), p. 461.

49 Ibid., p. 461; ibid., Official Records… Fourth Committee (4th session), p. 188.

50 Ibid., Official Records (4th session), p. 453–458.

51 Ibid., p. 312.

52 Document A/1049, p. 2.

53 General Assembly, Official Records (4th session), p. 571Google Scholar.

54 Document A/996.

55 Document A/1150, paragraph 5 (a) (i).

56 Ibid., paragraph 5 (b) (xvi).

57 General Assembly, Official Records (4th session), p. 438Google Scholar.

58 New York Times, October 5, 1950.

59 Ibid., November 4, 1950.

60 In several cases of minor amendments at the fourth session, the Soviet bloc did not vote as a unit. In one such case, in the fourth committee, the bulk of the Soviet bloc voted in favor, while Poland abstained. In another, Byelorussia, Czechoslovakia, the Ukrainian SSR and Yugoslavia voted in favor, and Poland and the USSH abstained. (General Assembly, Official Record… Fourth Committee [4th session], p. 240–241Google Scholar).