Election process for UN Secretary-General to start next month with five candidates so far

Five candidates, including Michelle Bachelet and Rafael Grossi, have been nominated to succeed António Guterres as UN secretary-general, with interactive candidate sessions beginning April 20, announced Annalena Baerbock, president of the United Nations General Assembly

United Nations: Five candidates have been nominated to vie to become the next United Nations secretary-general, taking over the organisation at a time of crises around the world and within it, and the election process will start next month, according to General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock.

“This is a very transparent, very neutral, and fair process in which every candidate … will have the same chances and opportunities”, she said on Friday.

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Starting April 20, each of the candidates will face a three-hour interactive session during which they will present their case for election to head the 193-member organisation and run a gauntlet of questions.

The dialogue will include civil society organisations and be broadcast on the web. The call for candidates was put out last year by Baerbock and the then-president of the Security Council called for women candidates, reflecting a wide sentiment that after 80 years it was time for a woman to helm the organisation.

The Assembly resolution on the election set “equal and fair distribution” on the basis of gender as a desirable goal. But two of the five candidates nominated so far are men.

The three woman candidates are former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, who was also the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and was nominated by Chile, Brazil and Mexico; Costa Rica’s nominee Rebecca Grynspan, the secretary-general of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and a former vice president of Costa Rica, and Virginia Gamba, a Argentinian nominated by Maldives, who held senior positions at the UN, including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, and the head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

Another Argentinian, Rafael Grossi, who heads the International Atomic Energy Agency, and was nominated by his country, is one of the two men running for the office. The other, nominated by Burundi, is Macky Sall, a former president and prime minister of Senegal.

Nominations close on April 1, and other candidates can emerge. Although the winner will need a simple majority in General Assembly, the factitious Security Council, where the five permanent members have veto powers, really makes the decision as the UN Charter says that the Assembly appoints the UN’s top official “upon the recommendation of the Security Council”.

Baerbock said the interactive dialogue first will “be structured around the personal vision statements and the management skill, and then in the second part, around the three pillars being peace and security, sustainable development and climate, and human rights”.

Asked about the qualities expected of the person who will succeed Guterres, she said the person “should provide strong and dedicated, effective leadership skills with experience in governance structures”.

The next leader should also have the management skills to guide the UN through reforms, she said. Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, will be completing his second term this year.