United Nations, Sept.29 (DPnet).– The 2026 United Nations Secretary-General selection is underway to choose a successor for António Guterres, whose second term ends on December 31, 2026.
Current Status and Straw Polls
- The UN Security Council held its third secret straw poll on September 18, 2026.
- Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan (right in the photo) led the September poll with nine "encourage" votes. She is the head of UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and former Vice President of her country.
- Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett (left in the photo) followed closely behind. She is Guyana's Ambassador to the UN.
- Argentina's Rafael Mariano Grossi is known as the third favorite candidate.
- While straw polls indicate levels of backing, no candidate has secured a definitive consensus or formal nomination from the Security Council yet
The 15-member Security Council will continue deliberations and additional straw polls before formally recommending a single candidate to the UN General Assembly for final appointment. The next Secretary-General is scheduled to assume office on January 1. Previous three straw polls were held on 30 July, 21 August, and 18 September.
No representatives of the UN Secretariat are present when Council members receive one ballo for each candidate, containing the candidate’s name followed by three options: “encouraged”, “discouraged”, and “no opinion expressed”. No official record of the results will be kept, and the Council president is expected to shred the ballots at the end of the straw poll today as he did in all previous ones.
However, information has been filtered on Michelle Bachelet Jeria (Chile) withdrawal of her candidacy last September 20. Her decision followed the third straw poll in which she received one “encouraged”, 11 “discouraged”, and three “no opinion” votes. It is also known that Costa Rica's Grynspan got 5 "discouraged" votes and Guyana's Rodrigues got 6 on the 3rd Straw Poll.
These results are showing that the Security Council is far from reaching a consensus. Although there is a general understanding that it is important for the next Secretary-General to have sufficient time to prepare before assuming office on 1 January 2027, some members may see advantages in prolonging the process. Keeping the process open might allow Council members to assess shifting patterns of support and set the ground for new candidates to come forward.
Two UN delegates confidentially informed DPnet that China's vote is required to decide which of the two Latin American women mentioned above becomes the first to lead the United Nations, after three rounds of informal voting in the Security Council failed to produce a favorite. They say that Beijing has been evaluating both leading Latin American candidates and might decide in favor of one of them.
Depending on the results of today’s vote, the fifth straw poll may be scheduled as early as next week. DPnet will continue to provide updates.