UN restores voting rights for Lebanon, Gabon, South Sudan, passes on Venezuela

The president of the U.N. General Assembly announced Tuesday that Lebanon, Gabon and South Sudan made sufficient payments to restore their voting rights in the 193-member world body, leaving Venezuela as the only country that is barred from voting.

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President Csaba Kőrösi told a plenary meeting of the assembly that the three countries reduced their arrears to the U.N. regular budget below the amount specified in the U.N. Charter to cut off voting rights.

The Charter states that countries will be barred from voting if their arrears equal or exceed their assessed contribution to the U.N. budget for the previous two years.

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Assembly spokeswoman Paulina Kubiak said four countries remain in arrears but the General Assembly adopted a resolution in October giving three poor and conflict-torn countries — the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Somalia – permission to vote until the end of the current session in September.

That leaves only the fourth country, Venezuela, in arrears and unable to vote.