An ordinary election for six judges of the International Criminal Court was held during the resumption of the 7th session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court in New York on 19 and 20 January 2009.^[1]

The election was to replace six judges who had been elected for a six-year term during the initial election in 2003.

The judges elected at this election were to take office on 11 March 2009, and to remain in office until 10 March 2018.^{[citation needed]}

The election was governed by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Its article 36(8)(a) states that "[t]he States Parties shall, in the selection of judges, take into account the need, within the membership of the Court, for:

• (i) The representation of the principal legal systems of the world;
• (ii) Equitable geographical representation; and
• (iii) A fair representation of female and male judges."

Furthermore, article 36(3)(b) and 36(5) provide for two lists:

• List A contains those judges that "[h]ave established competence in criminal law and procedure, and the necessary relevant experience, whether as judge, prosecutor, advocate or in other similar capacity, in criminal proceedings";
• List B contains those who "[h]ave established competence in relevant areas of international law such as international humanitarian law and the law of human rights, and extensive experience in a professional legal capacity which is of relevance to the judicial work of the Court".

Each candidate must belong to exactly one list.

Further rules of election were adopted by a resolution of the Assembly of States Parties in 2004.^[2]

Following these rules, the nomination period of judges for the 2009 election lasted from 21 July to 13 October 2008 and was extended thrice until 24 November 2008 due to the lack of candidates from some groups for which minimum voting requirements were in place. The following persons were nominated:^[3]

Name	Nationality	List A or B	Region	Gender
Victoire Désirée Adétoro Agbanrin-Elisha	Benin	List A	African States	Female
Joyce Aluoch	Kenya	List A	African States	Female
Phani Dascalopoulou-Livada	Greece	List B	Western European and Other States	Female
Christopher John Robert Dugard	South Africa	List B	African States	Male
Chile Eboe-Osuji	Nigeria	List A	African States	Male
María del Carmen González Cabal	Ecuador	List B	Latin American and Caribbean States	Female
Gberdao Gustave Kam	Burkina Faso	List A	African States	Male
Sanji Mmasenono Monageng	Botswana	List B	African States	Female
Aminatta Lois Runeni N'Gum	Gambia	List B	African States	Female
Vonimbolana Rasoazanany	Madagascar	List A	African States	Female
Fumiko Saiga	Japan	List B	Asian States	Female
Mohamed Shahabuddeen	Guyana	List B	Latin American and Caribbean States	Male
Angélique Sita-Akele Muila	Democratic Republic of the Congo	List B	African States	Female
El Hadji Malick Sow	Senegal	List A	African States	Male
Cuno Tarfusser	Italy	List A	Western European and Other States	Male
Wilhelmina Thomassen	Netherlands	List A	Western European and Other States	Female
Rosolu John Bankole Thompson	Sierra Leone	List A	African States	Male
Christine van den Wyngaert	Belgium	List A	Western European and Other States	Female
Dragomir Vokuje	Bosnia and Herzegovina	List A	Eastern European States	Male

The candidatures of Fernando Enrique Arboleda Ripoll of Colombia and of Lombe Chibesakunda of Zambia were withdrawn.

The candidature of Onesimus Mutungi of Kenya was replaced by the candidature of Joyce Aluoch.

Chile Eboe-Osuji of Nigeria was originally listed for list B.^[4]

Minimum voting requirements governed part of the election. This was to ensure that article 36(8)(a) cited above is fulfilled. For this election, the following minimum voting requirements existed; they were to be adjusted once the election was underway.

Regarding the List A or B requirement, there was a minimum voting requirement (not to be waived at any time) of one judge from List A and one judge from List B.^[5]

Regarding the regional criteria, there was a voting requirement for one judge from the Asian States and one judge from the Latin American and Caribbean States.

Regarding the gender criteria, there was no minimum voting requirement.

The regional and gender criteria could have been (and were) adjusted even before the election depending on the number of candidates. Paragraph 20(b) of the ASP resolution that governed the elections states that if there are less than double the number of candidates required for each region, the minimum voting requirement shall be a (rounded-up) half of the number of candidates; except when there is only one candidate which results in no voting requirement. Furthermore, if the number of candidates of one gender is less than ten, then the minimum voting requirement shall not exceed a certain number depending on the number of candidates.

The regional and gender criteria could have been dropped either if they were not (jointly) possible any more, or if after four ballots not all seats were filled.

The voting requirements were as follows:

The first two ballots took place on 19 January 2009. All other ballots took place on 20 January 2009.^{[citation needed]}

Name

Nationality

List A or B

Region

Gender

1st round

2nd round

3rd round

4th round

5th round

6th round

7th round

8th round

9th round

Number of States Parties voting

108

108

108

107

108

105

108

108

100

Two-thirds majority

72

72

72

72

72

72

72

72

67

Mohamed Shahabuddeen

Guyana

List B

Latin American and Caribbean States

Male

79

elected

Fumiko Saiga

Japan

List B

Asian States

Female

72

elected

Cuno Tarfusser

Italy

List A

Western European and Other States

Male

69

68

74

elected

Sanji Mmasenono Monageng

Botswana

List B

African States

Female

41

50

64

75

elected

Christine van den Wyngaert

Belgium

List A

Western European and Other States

Female

58

58

61

67

73

elected

Joyce Aluoch

Kenya

List A

African States

Female

30

32

39

36

38

48

55

62

100

Wilhelmina Thomassen

Netherlands

List A

Western European and Other States

Female

59

62

62

60

65

56

53

46

withdrawn

Phani Dascalopoulou-Livada

Greece

List B

Western European and Other States

Female

48

43

31

28

14

withdrawn

Christopher John Robert Dugard

South Africa

List B

African States

Male

30

27

25

20

14

withdrawn

María del Carmen González Cabal

Ecuador

List B

Latin American and Caribbean States

Female

31

18

18

14

withdrawn

Chile Eboe-Osuji

Nigeria

List A

African States

Male

24

16

12

withdrawn

Vonimbolana Rasoazanany

Madagascar

List A

African States

Female

10

6

12

withdrawn

Gberdao Gustave Kam

Burkina Faso

List A

African States

Male

14

9

withdrawn

Angélique Sita-Akele Muila

Democratic Republic of the Congo

List B

African States

Female

11

4

withdrawn

El Hadji Malick Sow

Senegal

List A

African States

Male

10

4

withdrawn

Dragomir Vokuje

Bosnia and Herzegovina

List A

Eastern European States

Male

9

4

withdrawn

Aminatta Lois Runeni N'Gum

Gambia

List B

African States

Female

5

3

withdrawn

Rosolu John Bankole Thompson

Sierra Leone

List A

African States

Male

9

2

withdrawn

Victoire Désirée Adétoro Agbanrin-Elisha

Benin

List A

African States

Female

4

withdrawn