The president of the United Nations General Assembly is a position voted by representatives in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on a yearly basis. The president is the chair and presiding officer of the General Assembly. Election The session of the assembly is scheduled for every year starting in September—any special, or emergency special, assemblies over the next year will be headed by the president of the UNGA. The presidency rotates annually between the five geographic groups: African, Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, Latin American and Caribbean, and Western European and other States. Because of their powerful stature globally, some of the largest, most powerful countries have never held the presidency, such as the People's Republic of China, France, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In particular, it is customary that no permanent member of the United Nations Security Council ever serves as UNGA president. The only modern countries that had a national elected as president of UNGA twice are Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Hungary and Nigeria; all the other member states had been represented only once by their nationals holding this office, and Germany had a national elected once as Federal Republic of Germany and once as German Democratic Republic. This does not include special and emergency special sessions of UNGA. List of presidents Abbreviations Pre-1966 COS: Commonwealth Seat EAS: Eastern European and Asian Seat LAS: Latin American Seat MES: Middle Eastern Seat WES: Western European Seat Since 1966 Africa: African Group Asia-Pacific: Asian Group, since 2011 the Asia-Pacific Group EEG: Eastern European Group GRULAC: Latin American and Caribbean Group WEOG: Western European and Others Group See also President of the United Nations Security Council President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council References External links UN: List of UN General Assembly presidents UN General Assembly President Election Reform. UNelections.org. Elections and appointments (2020-2021)