Argentina’s candidate for UN secretary-general, Rafael Grossi, gained support in the Security Council’s sixth informal poll on Friday, Oct. 16, winning 8 “encourage” votes, up from 6 in the last poll. But two permanent members, the ones with a veto, were among those who discouraged him.
A straw poll is an informal, secret ballot. Each of the council’s 15 members marks every candidate “encourage”, “discourage” or “no opinion”. To be recommended to the General Assembly, a candidate needs at least nine “encourage” votes and no “discourage” from any permanent member: the United States, China, Russia, France and Britain. The results are not published officially and leaked within hours.
What was new on Friday was the paper. For the first time the permanent members voted on red ballots and the ten other members on white, so a permanent member’s objection, which can become a veto in a formal vote, can be told apart from the rest. In earlier rounds the two kinds were mixed.
The result is a three-way stalemate. Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica led with 9 “encourage” and 5 “discourage”, the only candidate to reach nine, though two permanent members discouraged her. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana and Grossi tied behind her with 8 each. All three drew objections from two permanent members, and Grossi had two permanent-member supporters to the other two candidates’ three.
The council does not publish the ballots, and no government has said how it voted. Grynspan said afterward that “there was no formal vote today, and therefore we cannot talk about vetoes”, and that she is staying in the race, which she described as entering “the second half of the match”.
One candidate has left. Macky Sall, the former president of Senegal, withdrew on Saturday, Oct. 17, saying he hoped it would help the council reach a consensus candidate. That leaves six names.
The objections apply only to that ballot, so discouraged candidates can run again in the next poll, and new candidates can still enter. In a letter on Oct. 13, a group of Latin American and Caribbean states said it was time for someone from the region to lead the UN. Grossi had moved into second place in the previous poll, and Guterres leaves office at the end of the year.
