The next secretary general of the United Nations is almost certain to be South Korea’s Foreign Minister, Ban Ki-Moon, after a straw poll of the Security Council in New York on Monday night suggested he commanded overwhelming support.
In the fourth such poll of the 15 Security Council members, 14 indicated they supported Ban’s candidacy, with the remaining one offering no opinion.
Most significantly, this was the first straw poll in which the five permanent members of the Security Council — the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia — made clear their preference, using blue cards to indicate their status. All five expressed approval of Ban.
Under the UN’s system for electing its secretary general, the coloured-card straw poll is considered the make or break moment. Had any of the five permanent members opposed Ban, or even remained neutral, it could have proved fatal to his ambitions.
The arcane procedure is now likely to move to a formal and binding endorsement of Ban. On Monday the Security Council is expected to move to a vote, and then it would pass Ban’s application to the full General Assembly of the UN for approval by all 192 member nations.
The current Secretary General, Kofi Annan, will complete his second five-year term at the end of the year. Tension has built in recent years between Annan and the Bush administration over the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the confrontation with Iran over its nuclear programme.
The White House will be hoping that the minister from South Korea, a long-time ally of Washington, will provide a happier working relationship. Ban has worked for 35 years as a South Korean diplomat before entering the government, with lengthy postings to Washington and the UN. It is widely considered Asia’s turn to hold the post of secretary general.
Ban (62) is described by some as a natural-born diplomat with a talent for avoiding making enemies. He has attempted to shrug off suggestions that he is not up to the job of being secretary general by stressing his past and his involvement in talks aimed at ending the nuclear stand-off with North Korea.
There is still time for a wildcard candidate, but with Monday night’s near-unanimous vote that is increasingly unlikely. ”They would have to be extremely gutsy to put themselves forward this late in the day,” an official from a Western mission said. – Guardian Unlimited Â