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Turk remains "serious contender" for top UN job: Slovenian FM

Xinhua, August 31, 2016 Adjust font size:

Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec told local media Tuesday that former president Danilo Turk remains "a serious contender" in the race to become the next UN secretary general.

Turk fell to the eighth place in the latest straw poll vote at the UN Security Council, the Slovenian Press Agency reported earlier.

Erjavec said in response that this was an informal vote, that there were several more rounds scheduled and he would "personally not read too much into it."

The final, formal vote will be decisive and "it may be favorable for Turk. We are keeping an eye on the outcomes and I must say that after this vote he remains a serious contender," said Erjavec.

Turk received five "encourage" votes, six "discourage" votes while four members of the Security Council opted for "no opinion" on Monday, according to results of the confidential vote released by the World Federation of United Nations Associations.

In the first round, Turk was runner-up to Antonio Guterres, former UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who has remained the top candidate and received 11 endorsements on Monday. In the second round, he slipped to the fourth place. Endit