South Korea's Ban Ki-Moon and India's Shashi Tharoor were taking
a lead in the race for the position of the next UN
secretary-general, UN diplomats said Monday.
Earlier in the day, the UN Security Council held its first straw
poll on candidates vying to replace current UN chief Kofi Annan at
the very beginning of next year.
Some diplomats, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said
Ban had received the most favorable votes followed by Tharoor.
Ban received 12 "encouragements," one "discouragement" and two
"no opinions" while Tharoor got 10 "encouragements," two
"discouragements" and three "no opinions," the diplomats
disclosed.
Meanwhile, the other two candidates, Thailand's Surakiart
Sathirathai and Sri Lanka's Jayantha Dhanapala ranked in third and
fourth places respectively.??
The poll results are strictly not allowed to be made public, but
representatives from the candidates' countries would be informed of
their own votes.
Under UN Charter rules, the secretary-general is elected by the
192-member General Assembly under recommendation from the Security
Council, with the five permanent members -- the US, China, France,
Britain and Russia -- having veto power on the issue.
(Xinhua News Agency July 26, 2006)
