UN launches hunt for next chief amid rising challenges

Antonio Guterres’s successor will be tasked with revitalising an organisation in crisis and facing pressure to reform.

The United Nations has launched a search for its next secretary-general, as the international institution faces numerous challenges.

A first informal UN Security ⁠Council poll on Thursday showed former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan as the early frontrunner, although several other candidates are in the race.

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Whoever takes over from Antonio Guterres, who has led the UN for the past decade, will face significant challenges amid spiralling global conflict and the rising criticism from far-right populist movements against international institutions.

Therefore, Guterres’s successor will be tasked with revitalising an organisation in crisis, with a declining status and increasing pressure to reform.

In the ⁠non-binding “straw poll” voting conducted by the 15 members of the UNSC, Grynspan received 10 “encourage” votes.

Former ⁠Guyanese Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett attracted nine votes. Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, head of the UN nuclear watchdog, was in “surprise” third place among the seven candidates for the post.

In the straw polls, of which multiple rounds are expected, UNSC members are asked in secret ballots whether they “encourage”, “discourage” or have “no opinion” on each candidate.

Support from the ⁠Council’s five veto-wielding permanent members – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – is vital.

Historical precedent suggests multiple rounds of polling could continue through the summer and conclude in late September or early October. The ⁠process could take longer if no consensus candidate emerges.

Other candidates include ⁠former Senegalese President Macky Sall, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, former Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa, and Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu, who ⁠entered the race last week.

Other candidates can still join the contest.