Issue 26 - 4 October 2006 - Reflections on transparency in Secretary-General selection process

New York, 4 October 2006 – The UNSGselection.org campaign is seeking a broad range of perspectives on this year’s process for selecting the next UN Secretary-General. Experts who have been part of the campaign have observed:

  • This was arguably the most transparent selection process yet, and the most transparent for Member States, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and the media to follow.
  • The improvements in transparency included:
    • communication from the President of the Security Council to the President of the General Assembly, setting desired timeline for selection and requesting that candidates be submitted formally by Member States (Letter of 2 June 2006)
    • communication from the President of the Security Council to the President of the Genearl Assembly, describing the informal straw poll procedure for considering candidates (Letter of 6 July 2006)
    • the time elapsed between stages of the process – for example between Ban Ki Moon’s emergence as a leading candidate in July and the October straw poll and vote – which allowed Member States, NGOs, international organizations, and the media to examine his background and positions
  • An important criticism of the process regards the long-standing practice of exchanging grants and loans, making development and/or trade agreements between countries, and other reciprocal voting agreements. An important area for inquiry is whether candidates or their governments made any such promises in exchange for candidate support, which would undermine a democratic selection process and the nomination of the best-qualified candidate. Should Member States take action on relevant conflicts of interest and reciprocal voting agreements within the General Assembly?

We welcome other perspectives and comments from all observers of this process. We have also asked the seven candidates for their comments on the results of the recent polls, their candidacies, and the process as a whole.

Updated Results of Fourth Straw Poll

The full results of the Security Council’s fourth straw poll on 2 October have been updated on www.UNSG.org. This was the only straw poll to have distinguished between permanent and non-permanent members’ votes, and we have shown the results here according to the number of so-called “vetoes” for each candidate. (A “discourage” vote from a permanent member in a straw poll is considered a potential veto in the eventual formal poll.)

Candidate

Number of “Vetoes”

Discouragements from non-permanent members

Encouragements (from any member)

No Opinion (from any member)

Ban Ki Moon

0

0

14

1

Shashi Tharoor

1

2

10

2

Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein

1

7

2

5

Vaira Vike-Freiberga

2

4

5

4

Surakiart Sathirathai

2

5

4

4

Ashraf Ghani

3

8

4

0

This measure of the “reverse popularity” of candidates shows Mr. Ban as the clear winner, with Mr. Tharoor and Mr. Zeid Al-Hussein in second place.

New on UNSGselection.org