UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- Only 146 out of the 193 UN member states have paid their dues in full for the 2019 regular budget, said a UN spokesman on Friday.

As of Jan. 9, 2020, 10 members were at least two years in arrears so that they might lose their right to vote in the UN General Assembly, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The 10 members are the Central African Republic, the Comoros, Gambia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Tonga, Venezuela, and Yemen.

Under Article 19 of the UN Charter, a member that is two years in arrears shall have no vote in the General Assembly. However, the assembly may permit such a member to vote if it is satisfied that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member.

In October 2019, the General Assembly decided that the Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Somalia shall be permitted to vote in the General Assembly until the end of the 74th session in September 2020.

By Friday, four countries -- Armenia, India, Portugal and Ukraine have paid their contributions in full for the 2020 regular budget, said Dujarric.

The United Nations often suffers from cash deficits as regular budget payments by member states tend to come in too little, too late. In October 2019, Guterres said the world body was having its deepest cash flow crisis of the decade. Enditem

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