UNITED NATIONS -- Former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres of Portugal topped the first informal poll to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the next U.N. secretary-general on Jan. 1, with former Slovenian President Danilo Turk in second.
Two diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the vote was secret, said three candidates tied for third place -- Irina Bokova of Bulgaria who heads UNESCO, former Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic and former Macedonian Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim.
The 15 council members decided not to reveal the results of their voting to "encourage," "discourage," or express "no opinion" about the 12 candidates -- unlike the informal "straw" polls 10 years ago, which were made public and led to Ban's election to the world's top diplomatic post.
Despite the council's efforts at secrecy, the results quickly leaked out.
By tradition, the job of secretary-general has rotated among regions and Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe have all held the top post. Eastern European nations, including Russia, argue that they have never had a secretary-general and it is their turn. There also has never been a woman in the post and a group of 56 nations are campaigning for the first female U.N. chief.
Bokova got nine "encourage" votes, the highest number for a woman, the diplomats said. New Zealand's former Prime Minister Helen Clark was in fourth place with eight "encourage" votes and Argentina's Foreign Minister Susanna Malcorra got less support, they said.
Guterres, who was Portugal's center-left Socialist prime minister from 1995-2002 and served as U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees until the end of last year, received 12 "encourage" votes and three "no opinion" votes, the diplomats said.
Turk, who served as Slovenia's first U.N. ambassador from 1992-2000 and was the U.N. assistant secretary-general for political affairs from 2000-2005, received 11 "encourage" votes, two "discourage" and two "no opinion," the diplomats said.
Former Croatian Foreign Minister Vesna Pucic received 11 "discourage" votes, the most of the 12 candidates, the diplomats said.
The three other candidates at the bottom of the list were Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica, former Moldovan Foreign Minister Natalia Gherman and Montenegro's Foreign Minister Igor Luksic, they said.
"We've never had 12 candidates before," British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said before the vote. "We need to whittle it down to a reasonable number through the straw polls. ... I would encourage people who don't do so well to drop out of the race."
According to the U.N. 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, the United Kingdom and France -- have veto power over the candidates.
Another informal poll is expected to take place next week followed by several more in August, and possibly September.
French U.N. Ambassador Francois Delattre said the Security Council's goal is to make a recommendation to the General Assembly in the fall.
A Section on 07/22/2016