Otunnu, other contenders for UN chief receive veto: diplomat
The candidate who ultimately advances to the General Assembly must earn nine of 15 votes on the Security Council, while avoiding a veto from any of the five permanent members: the United States, Britain, China, France, and Russia.
Uganda’s candidate for the United Nations (UN) secretary general position, Dr Olara Otunnu. (File photo)
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Uganda’s candidate for the United Nations (UN) secretary general position, Dr Olara Otunnu, and the rest of the candidates to lead the United Nations (UN) received a vote of "discourage," effectively a veto, from a permanent UN Security Council member in the latest informal poll, a diplomat has said.
Friday's vote was the first time in the anonymous informal polling that Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States used colored straws to indicate their vetoes, while the Security Council's 10 elected members continued to use plain markers.
Costa Rica's Rebeca Grynspan -- who has been among the frontrunners in the five previous polls -- received the most "encourage" votes this time, but also got five "discourage" votes, including two from permanent members.
US media reports suggest Washington opposes all of the seven contenders in the race.
Washington's envoy to the UN Mike Waltz refused to comment on the report, but said Friday: "We have always said we just simply need the best."
On the question of new contenders joining the race, Waltz said "countries, if they want to to put more candidates in, that's certainly within their sovereign rights."
Among those considered by diplomats to be potential entrants are Nickolay Mladenov, the high representative for Gaza under the US-backed "Board of Peace," and the UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs Lana Nusseibeh.
Turkey's Feridun Hadi Sinirlioglu, Secretary-General of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), has also had his name floated.
Grynspan performed best on average in the first five rounds of informal polling, again coming top Friday -- despite the two vetoes.
The other candidates are Guyanese ex-foreign minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Argentina's Rafael Grossi, the current head of the UN nuclear watchdog, Macky Sall of Senegal (on Saturday withdrew from the seven-person race), Ecuador's Ivonne A-Baki and Maria Fernanda Espinosa, and Uganda's Olara Otunnu.
The outgoing secretary-general, Antonio Guterres of Portugal, ends his second five-year term on December 31, 2026.
Even if a candidate earns the required nine votes from the 15 available in the Security Council, they must also avoid a veto by the five major powers, which are deeply divided.
Once a candidate clears those bars, their name will go to the General Assembly of all UN members for confirmation.
The Security Council straw poll was devised in the early 1980s in an attempt to break a deadlock between two candidates shut down by vetoes.
The informal mechanism has persisted, in various forms, despite criticism from countries opposed to the opaque process.
Each of the 15 Security Council members must anonymously assign each candidate one of three labels: "encourage," "discourage," or "no opinion."
Under that premise, the role should go to a candidate from Latin America this time. There are many candidates from the region, though Sall and Otunnu hail from Africa.
Does veto matter?
The candidate who ultimately advances to the General Assembly must earn nine of 15 votes on the Security Council, while avoiding a veto from any of the five permanent members: the United States, Britain, China, France, and Russia.
Here is a look at the contenders:
Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett
Rodrigues-Birkett, the 52-year-old former foreign minister of Guyana, is currently her country's ambassador to the UN.
She has said the United Nations needs to restore its "credibility" on the global stage.
"The UN is judged through the peace and security lens. But the UN is much wider than that and it's delivering in many, many areas -- in development, in human rights," she said.
Rebeca Grynspan
Grynspan -- Costa Rica's former vice president -- leads the UN trade and development body (UNCTAD), but took leave from her duties to campaign for the top UN post.
In 2022, she pulled off a diplomatic feat by brokering the Black Sea Grain Initiative between Moscow and Kyiv to allow grain exports following Russia's invasion.
The 70-year-old plays up her personal story as the daughter of Jewish parents who she says "barely survived" the Holocaust before emigrating to Costa Rica.
She has lamented that the UN has become what she calls a "risk-conservative organization."
Michelle Bachelet
A Chilean socialist brutally tortured by the regime of Augusto Pinochet, Bachelet became her country's first woman president in 2006.
She went on to be the UN rights chief, a sensitive role in which she alienated some countries -- especially China, after her reporting on Beijing's alleged abuses of the country's Uyghur minority group.
Bachelet, 74, has said the UN secretary-general should have the "moral voice" to lead, even under pressure from major powers.
Maria Fernanda Espinosa
Espinosa, a former foreign minister of Ecuador, has called the United Nations the only universal platform for handling humanity's common challenges, but also wants deeper reform of the world body.
The 61-year-old, a previous president of the UN General Assembly, has suggested creating an "early warning" system to detect and flag signs of impending conflict.
Espinosa's candidacy has been backed by Antigua and Barbuda, but not her own country.
Rafael Grossi
The 65-year-old Grossi, an Argentine career diplomat, has led the International Atomic Energy Agency since 2019, propelling him into the middle of the battle over Iran's nuclear program as well as the Russian occupation of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
He did not step down from his current post to campaign for secretary-general, saying it would be a "dereliction of duty."
Some observers say he's been more strident in pushing for UN reform, and believes the UN secretary-general should take a more hands-on approach.
Ivonne A-Baki
Ivonne A-Baki, 75, is an Ecuadoran diplomat and politician who represented Quito as ambassador to Washington where she was seen as forging close ties with US President Donald Trump.
Nominated by Tonga, A-Baki has strong Gulf connections having served as Ecuador's ambassador to Qatar.
A-Baki, born to Lebanese parents, was instrumental in brokering dialogue between Ecuador and Peru following their brief 1995 border war.
"I have lived through the ravages of war," she wrote on social media. "I stand ready to help renew the UN Charter's foundational promise: to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war."
Olara Otunnu
Otunnu, 75, served as UN under-secretary general and special representative for children and armed conflict from 1997 to 2005 under then UN chief Kofi Annan.
He also served as Uganda's UN envoy, and as his country's foreign minister for a brief period.
Otunnu stood as the presidential candidate for the opposition Uganda People's Congress in the 2011 election, losing to longtime leader Yoweri Museveni, in office since 1986.