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Portugal's Guterres to be Next UN Chief

by Margaret Besheer

   UNITED NATIONS --

   Portugal's former Prime Minister Antonio Guterres has unofficially been
   selected as the next U.N. Secretary-General. He is expected to be
   officially endorsed in the coming days.

   Following a decisive round of voting Wednesday in the U.N. Security
   Council, the veteran politician and diplomat prevailed with 13 votes in
   favor of his candidacy, none objecting to it and two votes of "no
   opinion".
   "Today we have a clear favorite and his name is Antonio Gutteres,"
   Russia's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin announced in his capacity as
   council president. In an unexpected move, he was flanked at the
   microphone by all of the council's ambassadors.
   "We've decided to go for a formal vote tomorrow at 10:00 am. We hope it
   can be done by acclamation," Churkin added.
   Wednesday's round of informal straw polls was significant because for
   the first time, the five permanent, veto-wielding council members used
   color-coded ballots that signified vetoes of candidates. Guterres
   escaped the vetoes and received more than the minimum 9 votes needed to
   prevail.
   On Thursday, the council will formalize its decision in a vote and
   after that put the decision in a resolution. The council will then
   sends its recommendation to the U.N. General Assembly which is expected
   to rubber stamp the Guterres selection.
   Guterres, 67, was Portugal's prime minister from 1992 to 2002. He led
   the U.N. Refugee Agency for a decade from 2005-2015.

   He told VOA in an interview during his campaign that he was running for
   the top U.N. job because he wants to "create the conditions for
   solutions" to global challenges.
   There will be no end of challenges awaiting him when he takes over from
   Ban Ki-moon on January 1, 2017.