United Nations General Assembly President Chapa Korosi announced that Lebanon, Gabon and South Sudan have paid their dues to regain voting rights in the 193-member world body.
Chapa Corosi told the plenary assembly that three countries have reduced their debt to the UN regular budget to less than the amount specified in the UN Charter to remove the right to vote, while Venezuela remains the only country barred from voting.
It is worth noting that the Charter provides that countries cannot vote if their arrears equal or exceed their estimated contribution to the United Nations budget for the past two years.
General Assembly spokeswoman Paulina Kubik said four countries still had not paid their dues, but in October the General Assembly passed a resolution giving three poor and conflict-torn countries – the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe and Somalia – permission to vote to the end current session in September.
This leaves only a fourth country, Venezuela, indebted and disenfranchised.
Source: “AB”