Security Council screens 12 UN Sec. General Candidates

Former Portuguese Prime Minister and head of the United Nations refugee agency Antonio Guterres came first, allegedly with 12 votes in favor and is the only candidate to have no votes against.

The council diplomats said the result for each candidate will be conveyed to the ambassador from the candidate’s country, who will also be told the highest and lowest votes with no names.

Each of the 15 members of the Security Council will indicate through secret ballot whether they “encourage”, “discourage” or have “no opinion” about the candidate.

Though the results of the poll were not made publicly available, countries with a nominee were informed how well their candidate performed.

There are 12 candidates in the race, six of them women.

Another informal poll is expected to take place next week followed by several more in August, and possibly September.

It’s possible that a final vote may be months away.

Under the UN Charter, the UN secretary-general shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. There have been deadlocks in the past where the P5 have tried to block each other’s candidates.

The United Nations Security Council will decide who the next secretary-general will be.

There are now 12 candidates in the race, six of them women, but diplomats said some were expected to withdraw following the result of the first round.

Ahead of Thursday’s confidential poll, the United Nations 193-member General Assembly has held public informal dialogues with every secretary-general candidate, during which the candidates were asked to submit their resumes and answer questions from United Nations member states as well as the civil society.

Ten years ago, there were seven candidates to succeed Kofi Annan as secretary-general.

They were Irina Bokova of Bulgaria who heads UNESCO, Serbia’s former foreign minister Vuk Jeremic and former Macedonian foreign minister Srgjan Kerim.

Argentina’s Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra, who served as Ban’s chief of staff, failed to make a strong showing, receiving fewer encouragements than Clark as did Slovakia’s Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak.

“The Security Council members want somebody to lead, not someone who is silent all the time”, she said.

Clark has spoken out strongly against those views suggesting the role should go to an Eastern Europe candidate.

However, that does not mean the next leader will be a woman from Eastern Europe – and the race is wide open at the moment.

Some member states have made their preferences clear, and have taken to addressing the future secretary-general by pronouns, “she” and “her”. “We need to whittle it down to a reasonable number through the straw polls”.

Japan’s U.N. Ambassador Koro Bessho, who holds the rotating council presidency, confirmed after the two-hour closed council session that the vote had taken place. It is hoped that, by then, there will only be two or three candidates remaining.

“It has already made a difference”. “[It] does not live up to the expectations of the membership and the new standard of openness and transparency”.

The final decision lies with the Security Council, but diplomats acknowledged that the momentum created by the new public selection process and will weigh heavily on their decision. Guterres was reportedly the only candidate to not receive any “discourage” votes among the contenders.

Criticism from Lykketoft himself came after Thursday’s vote in the form of a letter addressed to Bessho criticizing the secretive nature of the poll. In addition, Malcorra stated in a press release that the vote was just “the first step in a [long] process”. And in an institution that prizes “geographic balance”, Bokova hails from a region officials say is due for the leadership spot in a year in which female candidates are being actively sought for the job.