NEW YORK: United Nations will elect its new Secretary General today as its current chief’s Ban Ki-moon tenure will be completed in December 2016.
UN new Secretary General will take its responsibilities in January 2017. Thirteen candidates entered in the race, necessitating a series of straw polls held by the Security Council to encourage a thinning of the field and to help to settle on a single candidate. In every ballot, 15 security council members assessed each candidate by voting either ‘encourage’, ‘discourage’ or ‘no opinion.’
Portugal’s former Prime Minister Guterres is the strongest candidate for the slot. He had been heading the UN refugee agency for last 10 years until 2015. In the last vote, Guterres received 13 ‘encourage’ votes, no ‘discourage’ vote and two votes of ‘no opinion.’
The 15 Security Council members agreed to put his name forward to the formal vote.
The UN Security Council unanimously nominated Guterres for the Secretary General. He will become the UN Secretary General after the approval of General Assembly.
