The United Nations Security Council will hold its first informal closed-door straw poll on Thursday as it begins the process of identifying the next UN Secretary-General.
The non-binding vote will measure support among the Council’s 15 members for the seven candidates seeking to succeed Antonio Guterres, whose second five-year term ends later this year.
The candidates are Rafael Grossi of Argentina, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); former Chilean president Michelle Bachelet; former Costa Rican vice president Rebeca Grynspan; former Ecuadorian foreign minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa; former Guyanese foreign minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett; former Senegalese president Macky Sall; and Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu, who entered the race last week.
During the straw poll, Security Council members will cast secret ballots indicating whether they “encourage,” “discourage,” or have “no opinion” on each candidate. The exercise is informal and non-binding but is considered an important indicator of each candidate’s level of support.
There is currently no clear frontrunner, and previous leadership contests suggest several rounds of voting could continue through the coming months before a consensus candidate emerges.
Initially, all ballots will appear identical, preventing members from knowing whether any negative votes come from one of the Council’s five permanent members — China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States — all of which hold veto power.
In later rounds, permanent members will use different coloured ballots, allowing diplomats to identify whether a candidate has received opposition from a veto-wielding country.
The Security Council will eventually recommend one candidate to the 193-member UN General Assembly. The recommendation requires at least nine votes in favour and no veto from any permanent member before being formally approved by the General Assembly.
The current president of the Security Council, Democratic Republic of the Congo’s UN ambassador Zenon Mukongo Ngay, confirmed that the first straw poll would take place on Thursday morning.
Ngay said Otunnu would be included in the vote despite not participating in the informal candidate hearings attended by the other contenders.
According to his curriculum vitae, Otunnu introduced the straw poll system for selecting a UN Secretary-General while serving as president of the Security Council in 1981.
The next Secretary-General will inherit an organisation facing growing calls for reform, with pressure to streamline its bureaucracy, reduce duplication across UN agencies and restore the body’s global influence.
