Four coveted seats on the United Nations Security Council were awarded to Angola, Malaysia, Venezuela and New Zealand during Thursday's elections. Voting continued to decide whether Turkey or Spain would also join the council.

The U.N. General Assembly members did not give Spain nor Turkey enough votes to select them for the council in the first or second ballots for the fifth spot on arguably the most powerful committee in the U.N. Turkey has been under increasing pressure for more action regarding the war in its border-sharing neighbor, Syria. Votes for Turkey waned between the first ballot vote to the second. The country received 109 of its needed 129 votes in the first ballot and only 73 countries' support in the second.

Venezuela went unopposed for the single seat allocated to Latin America and Caribbean nations. Angola was the only country nominated from Africa and Malaysia filled the seat for Asia without any competition.

Foreign minister for Venezuala, Rafael Ramirez, said this "huge triumph" was dedicated to the late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, with the win coming despite a "malign campaign against our country." The U.S. managed to prevent Venezuela from joining the council in 2006, but would not discuss how it voted in the recent election. Ten countries abstained in the vote Thursday.

"The Security Council's new membership could prove more problematic on human rights issues, with several generally rights-friendly countries leaving and others coming on board with poor voting records," the U.N. director of Human Rights Watch, Philippe Bolopion, said in a statement. "This is particularly true of Venezuela, which has consistently challenged protection efforts at the (U.N.) Human Rights Council, but also of Angola and Malaysia, which need to demonstrate a more human rights-oriented approach in New York than they did in Geneva."

Winners will join the council Jan. 1, 2015, and serve through 2016.