United Nations lifts veil from process to select top diplomat
Print Edition
THE United Nations yesterday began the first hearings of candidates seeking to become the next secretary-general, lifting some of the secrecy surrounding the choice of the world’s top diplomat.
Eight contenders are expected to take the podium before the General Assembly’s 193 nations to lay out their vision for the job and answer questions.
The hearings are part of a broad push for transparency in the selection of Ban Ki-moon’s successor, who will lead an organization of 40,000-plus employees with a budget of US$10 billion.
For decades, the choice of the UN chief has been firmly in the hands of the Security Council and its five permanent members — Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States — in a process largely kept behind closed doors.
But in September the General Assembly voted to shake up the process, asking candidates to send formal applications, present resumes and appear at hearings.
However, the final decision to nominate a candidate still rests with the Security Council.
“This is a potentially game-changing exercise,” General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft told reporters in New York. “If there is a critical mass of countries supporting one single candidate, I don’t think we will see the Security Council coming up with quite a different name.”
Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Igor Luksic was up first, switching from English to French in an address that touched on his Balkan roots and appeals for stronger efforts to help the world’s youth.
The head of cultural agency UNESCO Irina Bokova and former high commissioner for refugees Antonio Guterres also had an opportunity to woo diplomats.
Security Council members are facing calls to pick a woman after eight men in the job, and to favor a candidate from eastern Europe, the only region yet to be represented in the top post.
Today, the assembly will hear Slovenia’s former President Danilo Turk, Croatia’s former Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic and Natalia Gherman, former foreign minister of Moldova.
The head of the UN Development Program and New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Helen Clark will speak tomorrow as will Macedonia’s former Foreign Minister Srgjan Kerim.
More candidates are expected to come forward, including two women seen as potential frontrunners — EU Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva of Bulgaria and Argentina’s Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra.
Referring to speculation German Chancellor Angela Merkel could apply, Lykketoft said he would be “surprised.”
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