Process for electing next UN chief starts with preliminary UNSC poll 

United Nations, July 30 (AHN) The process of electing the next United Nations Secretary-General kicked off on Thursday with a straw poll of the Security Council to get an initial assessment of the support levels of the seven candidates, Council President Zenon Mukongo Ngay said.

But Ngay, who is the permanent representative of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that holds the Council presidency for the month, said the Council decided not to announce the results.

The results will be conveyed to the missions of the nominating countries and General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock, he said.

He said the ballot had three options for each candidate: Encourage, Discourage, and No Opinion.

The secret poll is one of a series that will continue till a candidate emerges with the consensus of the five permanent Council members, which in effect means that the US, Russia and China will not block the candidate.

While the first straw polls are totally secret, during the later stage the votes of the veto-wielding permanent members will be shown separately, but without identifying the country, to assess which candidate will not face a veto.

Four of the candidates have leadership experience with UN organisations: Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Michael Bachelet, the former High Commissioner for Human Rights and president of Chile; Rebeca Grynspan, the head of UN Trande and Development (UNCTAD), who was also a former vice president of Costa Rica, and Olara Otunnu, a former UN under-secretary-general and Uganda’s foreign minister, who has done a stint as the president of the Council.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa is a former president of the General Assembly and Ecuador’s foreign minister.

The other candidates are former Guyanese Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett and former Senegalese President Macky Sall.

Candidates have to go through a three-hour interactive dialogue with diplomats and civil society representatives under the auspices of the General Assembly.

So far, Grynspan, Bachelet, Grossi, Fernanda Espinos, and Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett have made their case for election at the dialogues.

Otunnu announced his candidature just last week, and more candidates can emerge till the final election when the 193-nation General Assembly will endorse the candidate selected by the Council.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emerged as the leader in the two straw polls in 2016, with no “Discourage” marks that the other nine candidates received in varying numbers.

There is a groundswell of opinion that after 80 years, it is time for a woman to become the secretary-general.

This was reflected in invitations for nominations sent out by Baerbock and the then-president of the Security Council last year that made specific mention of women candidates.

However, the US, Russia and China will have the final word.