UN to hold informal poll on dozen candidates for next UN chief

PanARMENIAN.Net - The UN Security Council holds its first informal poll Thursday, July 21 on the dozen candidates competing to succeed Ban Ki-moon as secretary-general on Jan. 1, the Associated Press reports.

The 15 council members have decided to keep the vote secret — a sharp contrast to the informal "straw" polls 10 years ago which were made public and led to Ban's election to the world's top diplomatic post.

Japan's UN Ambassador Koro Bessho, who holds the rotating council presidency, reiterated Wednesday that he would only be confirming that the poll was held behind closed doors.

According to the UN Charter, the secretary-general is chosen by the 193-member General Assembly on the recommendation of the Security Council. In practice, this has meant that the council's five permanent members — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — have veto power over the candidates.

By tradition, the job of secretary-general has rotated among regions and Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe have all held the top post. East European nations, including Russia, argue that they have never had a secretary-general and it is their turn. There has also never been a woman secretary-general and a group of 56 nations are campaigning for the first female UN chief, AP says.

The 12 candidates include six men and six women — eight from Eastern Europe, two from Latin America, one from Western Europe and one from the Asia-Pacific region.