Rebeca Grynspan leads UN chief poll, diplomats say

Rebeca Grynspan was leading after the first UN Security Council straw poll in the race to choose the next UN secretary-general, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Grynspan, a former vice-president of Costa Rica and head of the UN Conference on Trade and Development, was followed by former Guyanese foreign minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, according to two diplomatic sources briefed on the results. Rafael Grossi of Argentina, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, was third, they said.

The Security Council met on Thursday for the first secret straw poll to gauge support for the seven candidates seeking to succeed Antonio Guterres of Portugal, who is due to complete his second five-year term on December 31, 2026.

The candidates so far are Michelle Bachelet of Chile, Maria Fernanda Espinosa of Ecuador, Grossi, Grynspan, Olara Otunnu of Uganda, Rodrigues-Birkett and Macky Sall of Senegal. Nominations remain open.

Security Council president Zenon Ngay Mukongo of the Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed that a second straw poll would be announced in the coming days.

A candidate needs nine votes in the 15-member Security Council and must avoid a veto by any of the five permanent members: the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom. If the council recommends a candidate, the choice goes to the UN General Assembly for confirmation.

In the straw poll system, each council member anonymously marks each candidate as “encourage,” “discourage” or “no opinion.” Later in the process, ballots from permanent members are expected to be shown in a different color, making possible vetoes visible without identifying which country objected.

Some have criticised the system as opaque. Many states are pressing for the UN to be led by a woman for the first time, and Panama’s ambassador to the UN, Eloy Alfaro de Alba, said it was a priority that the winner be a woman from Latin America.