UNITED NATIONS, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- The Security Council on Thursday held its eighth straw poll on candidates for the next UN secretary-general.
"The eighth round of straw polls has taken place," said Sanita Pavluta-Deslandes, the UN ambassador of Latvia, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council for the month of November.
Each candidate will be informed of the poll results through the permanent representatives of the member states that nominated them. The president of the UN General Assembly will also be notified that the straw poll has taken place, Pavluta-Deslandes told reporters after the secret vote concluded.
Security Council straw polls on secretary-general candidates are informal closed-door ballots used to determine the viability of the candidates. Their results are not officially released.
Through the polls, the Security Council selects a candidate to recommend to the General Assembly for appointment as the next UN secretary-general.
Council members are believed to receive one ballot per candidate, containing the candidate's name followed by three options: "encouraged," "discouraged" and "no opinion expressed."
To win the council's recommendation, a candidate needs to gain at least nine "encouraged" votes and no "discouraged" votes from any of the five permanent members of the council.
In the sixth straw poll held on Oct. 16, ballots were color-coded to distinguish the votes of permanent and non-permanent members. However, in the seventh straw poll on Oct. 30 and Thursday's eighth straw poll, the council members switched back to undifferentiated ballots after new candidates entered the race.
Lana Nusseibeh, a United Arab Emirates diplomat and the country's former ambassador to the United Nations, joined the race after the sixth round. Former Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Hadi Sinirlioglu, who currently serves as secretary general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, joined the race after the seventh round.
Apart from Nusseibeh and Sinirlioglu, six candidates participated in Thursday's straw poll: Ivonne A-Baki, a former Ecuadorian minister and diplomat; Maria Fernanda Espinosa, a former UN General Assembly president and former foreign minister and defense minister of Ecuador; Rafael Grossi of Argentina, current director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Rebeca Grynspan, a former vice president of Costa Rica and current secretary-general of the UN Conference on Trade and Development; Olara Otunnu of Uganda, a former UN under-secretary-general; and Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett, Guyana's permanent representative to the United Nations.
According to leaked results, Grynspan topped Thursday's poll with 12 "encouraged" votes and three "discouraged" votes. She was followed by Grossi, with nine "encouraged" votes, four "discouraged" votes and two "no opinion expressed" votes.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' term expires at the end of this year. His successor is scheduled to take office on Jan. 1, 2027. ■
