Uganda's Olara Otunnu joins race to lead UN

Uganda's Olara Otunnu has joined the race to become the next leader of the United Nations, becoming the seventh candidate seeking to succeed Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The UN informed member states that Otunnu's candidacy had been presented by Uganda. Otunnu is 75 and is a former senior UN official. He served as UN under-secretary-general and special representative for children and armed conflict from 1997 to 2005 under then UN chief Kofi Annan.

Otunnu has also served as Uganda's ambassador to the UN and briefly as Uganda's foreign minister. He later stood as the Uganda People's Congress opposition candidate in Uganda's 2011 presidential election, which he lost to Yoweri Museveni, who has been in office since 1986.

The other candidates in the race are Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, Rafael Grossi of Argentina, Rebeca Grynspan of Costa Rica, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett of Guyana and Macky Sall of Senegal. They are seeking to replace Guterres, who is due to leave office on December 31.

The six previously declared candidates took part in a televised debate on Thursday. The 15 members of the UN Security Council are due to hold their first closed-door anonymous vote, known as a straw poll, on July 30. Further similar votes are expected until one candidate receives the required nine votes without a veto from any of the five permanent council members: the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia.

The selected candidate's name will then be sent to the General Assembly for formal appointment. The next secretary-general is due to take office on January 1, 2027.