United Nations – South Korea’s foreign minister cemented his position as the near-certain successor to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday, the only one of six candidates to escape a veto in an informal Security Council ballot.
The Security Council was expected to hold a formal vote to pick the eighth secretary-general in the United Nations’ 60-year history next Monday, making Ban Ki-Moon’s appointment almost assured. The 192-nation General Assembly must approve the council’s recommendation and traditionally does so without protest.
While the informal poll is nonbinding and the results could change, diplomats and candidates left little doubt that Ban would win. Soon after the results became known, India’s Shashi Tharoor, the U.N. undersecretary-general for public information, announced he was leaving the race even though he placed second to Ban in all four of the informal polls.
If Ban does win the race, his selection will have been marked by unprecedented speed, consensus and calm. In the past, U.N. chiefs have often been elected as time runs out, after heated negotiations and numerous rounds of voting.
