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Spotlight: Security Council holds first secret poll on next UN chief selection

Xinhua, July 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

The UN Security Council on Thursday held its first straw poll on candidates vying to become the next UN secretary-general but made no announcement of the results.

After the secret balloting, Japan's Ambassador Koro Bessho, also the Security Council president for July, told reporters here that "the candidates will be informed of the results through the respective permanent representatives of nominating member states."

Under the UN Charter, the UN secretary-general shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council. In practice, the Security Council, particularly its five permanent members, will make the final choice and send a single candidate to the General Assembly for approval.

Before the final decision comes out, several rounds of straw polls would be held among the 15 Security Council members. Bessho explained to reporters that the straw poll is "an indicative vote."

He said the poll is to inform the candidates of where they stand in the race and also inform the council members how the race might go on from here.

So far, 12 candidates have been competing for the post of the next UN chief: half of them are women; eight are from the eastern European nations. Among them are former U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, former Slovenian President Danilo Turk, UN cultural agency UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, etc.

In Thursday's balloting, Security Council members have voted "encourage," "discourage" or "no opinion expressed" for each one of them.

The second round of straw poll has not yet been scheduled.

The incumbent UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is going to conclude his term at the end of 2016. The council's decision to select the top leader of the world organization shall come later in the fall.

Ahead of Thursday's confidential poll, the UN 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 UN member states as well as the civil society.

The procedure is widely seen historic, yet not decisive. President of UN General Assembly Mogens Lykketoft who initiated the procedure has said it is to find the best person who is the moral authority and is capable of leading the UN with political and diplomatic skills.

Regarding other UN member states, there has been a widespread call to select a woman as the world's top civil servant ever since the selection process was set in motion; it is also expected that the next secretary-general shall come from eastern Europe due to an unwritten rule of regional rotation in UN chief selection. Enditem