Preliminary UNSC poll shows UNCTAD head front-runner in secretary-general race

United Nations: UNCTAD head Rebecca Grynspan led the first informal Security Council poll to become the next secretary-general, while former Guyana Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett surprisingly emerged as the runner-up, according to diplomatic sources.

Grynspan, a former vice president of Costa Rica who is the secretary-general of the UN trade body, received ten positive votes, one negative, and four neutral votes in the straw poll held on Thursday, according to a tabulation by 1 for 8 Billion (1f8B), a group campaigning for a fair and open election.

Rodrigues-Birkett emerged second with nine positive, two negative and four neutral votes among the seven candidates.

While Council President Zenon Mukongo declined to disclose the results, diplomats gave out the tally to news outlets that was tabulated by 1f8B, which represents scores of civil society organisaitons.

The Council decides the candidate whom it recommends to the General Assembly, which by tradition agrees with it to complete the election.

Secret straw polls are conducted to assess the support levels of the candidates in the 15-member Council.

The straw polls will continue till a candidate emerges with the consensus of the five permanent Council members, which in effect means that the US, Russia and China will not block the candidate.

While none of the countries are identified, in the final rounds of the straw polls the five permanent members get colour-coded ballots to find out which candidates would face a veto.

Ngay said the ballots had three options for each candidate — Encourage, Discourage, and No Opinion– that the Council members ticked off.

The options correspond to positive, negative, and neutral.

It was not known if Grynspan or Rodrigues-Birkett had any negative votes from permanent members since Thursday’s poll did not have distinctive ballots for them.

International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi, who is from Argentina, placed third, and former UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet, a former president of Chile, came next.

Both of them have run afoul of the US and Russia.

Grossi, who got two “discourage” votes, has criticised Russia’s attacks on the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, and publicly differed with the US over Iran’s nuclear potential.

Bachelet, who received five negative votes, has criticised the human rights record of most countries, especially in strong terms, Russia, China and US ally Israel drawing strong rebuttals.

Former Senegal President Macky Sall, who does not have the backing of his country, came next.

Although she came next to last, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, a former president of the General Assembly and Ecuador’s foreign minister, remains viable as she received only two “discourage” but eight “no opinion” votes, leaving room for her to convince more countries to support her.

Grynspan, Rodrigues-Birkett and Espinosa may have an advantage as there’s a groundswell of opinion for finally having a woman as secretary-general after 80 years of the UN, and there hasn’t been a Latin American in the office for 35 years since Javier Perez de Cuellar left in 1991.

Olara Otunnu, a former UN under-secretary-general and Uganda’s foreign minister who has done a stint as the president of the Council, announced his candidature only last week, and he came last week.

–IANS