All Seven UN Secretary-General Candidates Face Effective Veto in Security Council Poll

All seven declared candidates for the next United Nations secretary-general received a “discourage” vote from at least one permanent member of the Security Council in the latest anonymous informal poll, according to a diplomat.

A discourage vote from one of the council’s five permanent members is effectively a veto, creating a major obstacle for any contender seeking to advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Grynspan leads on support but faces opposition

Rebeca Grynspan received the highest number of “encourage” votes in the latest round. She nevertheless received five discourage votes, two of them from permanent members.

Grynspan also had the strongest average performance across the first five rounds of informal polling and again finished first in the latest vote. The result means that her support among council members has not yet translated into a clear path forward.

The other candidates listed in the poll are Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Rafael Grossi, Macky Sall, Ivonne A-Baki, Maria Fernanda Espinosa and Olara Otunnu.

Opaque voting process

The informal poll allows each of the 15 Security Council members to anonymously mark a candidate as “encourage,” “discourage” or “no opinion.” The process was devised in the early 1980s as an attempt to overcome deadlock between candidates blocked by vetoes and has continued in different forms despite criticism over its lack of transparency.

For the first time in the informal polling, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States used coloured straws to signal vetoes. The council’s 10 elected members used plain markers.

The latest results do not identify which permanent member opposed each candidate. Apart from Grynspan’s two permanent-member discourage votes, the full breakdown was not provided.

Possible new names

US media reports have suggested that Washington opposes all seven contenders, although that claim has not been independently confirmed in the reported poll results. Mike Waltz declined to comment on the reports, saying: “We have always said we just simply need the best.”

Asked about the possibility of additional contenders entering the race, Waltz said countries could put forward more candidates as part of their sovereign rights.

Diplomats have mentioned Nickolay Mladenov, Lana Nusseibeh and Feridun Hadi Sinirlioglu as possible additional entrants. None is identified as a confirmed candidate in the reported field.

Next stage in the selection

A candidate must secure at least nine of the Security Council’s 15 votes and avoid a veto from all five permanent members before the name can be sent to the UN General Assembly for confirmation.

The secretary-general’s position traditionally rotates among different regions. The current officeholder, António Guterres of Portugal, is due to complete his second five-year term on December 31, 2026.

The source report said the regional rotation tradition would point to Latin America for the next term. It also noted that Sall and Otunnu are from Africa, while several of the other names are linked to Latin America.