The five candidates elected were Bahrain, Brazil, Gabon, Gambia, and Slovenia with Bahrain, Gambia and Slovenia being elected for the first time.
Geographic distribution
In accordance with the General Assembly's rules for the geographic distribution of the non-permanent members of the Security Council, and established practice, the members were to be elected as follows: two from Africa, one from Asia, one from Latin American and the Caribbean Group (GRULAC), and one from the Eastern European Group. By unofficial custom, the seat from Asia was to be filled by a member of the Arab League, as the previous holder of the "Arab seat" was African Egypt.
Candidates
There was a total of six candidates for the five seats. The only seat contested was that of the Eastern European Group: The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia competed for the one available seat. The other groups all had a number of candidates equal to the number of seats to fill: Gabon and Gambia for the two African seats, Bahrain for the one Asian seat, and Brazil for the one GRULAC seat.
Results
Voting proceeded by secret ballot. For each geographic group, each member state could vote for as many candidates as were to be elected. There were 174 ballots in each of the three elections.
With Macedonia losing to Slovenia, and all the other candidates securing their respective majority supports of 2/3, the final result was as follows: Bahrain, Brazil, Gabon, Gambia, and Slovenia were elected to serve two-year terms at the United Nations Security Council commencing 1 January 1998.
