Former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan widened her lead in the race to become the next UN secretary-general on Thursday, winning 12 “encourage” votes from the 15-member Security Council in its eighth informal straw poll, according to leaked results reported by the UN-focused news site PassBlue.
Grynspan also received three “discourage” votes. In the seventh poll on Oct. 30, she had 11 “encourage” and four “discourage” votes, so Thursday’s result added one supporter and removed one objection. Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, stayed in second place with nine “encourage,” four “discourage” and two “no opinion” votes, unchanged from the previous round. Guyana’s Carolyn Rodrigues Birkett received eight, five and two, cutting her “discourage” count from six.
The newest entrant, Türkiye’s Feridun SinirlioÄŸlu, secretary general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and a former foreign minister, drew three “encourage,” eight “discourage” and four “no opinion” votes in his first poll. The United Arab Emirates’ Lana Nusseibeh received seven, six and two, according to the same tally.
Further back, Uganda’s Olara Otunnu received four “encourage” votes and Ecuador’s MarÃa Fernanda Espinosa three. Ivonne A-Baki, also from Ecuador, received one “encourage” vote against 14 “discourage.”
Council members again used ballots of the same color, which hides whether any “discourage” votes came from the five permanent members that hold a veto: the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom. PassBlue reported widespread speculation that the United States has consistently discouraged Grynspan and that Russia may have joined it this time.
The only color-coded poll so far, held Oct. 16, showed Grynspan, Grossi and Rodrigues Birkett each with two “discourage” votes from permanent members. An outside expert told PassBlue that China may be pushing to keep the polls undifferentiated to give the Latin American candidates more time to build support. To be recommended to the General Assembly, a candidate needs at least nine votes in favor in the Council and no veto from a permanent member. The 193-member General Assembly then makes the appointment.
Time is short since Secretary-General António Guterres’s second term ends Dec. 31 and the Council’s president for November, Latvian Ambassador Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes, warned this week that the window to agree on a candidate is closing. No date has been set for the next straw poll, and it is not yet known whether it will be color-coded.
SinirlioÄŸlu was scheduled to hold a public dialogue with the General Assembly on Friday and an informal meeting with Council members on Monday. President Laura Fernández asked for support for Grynspan’s candidacy this week at the Ibero-American Summit in Madrid. Grynspan was Costa Rica’s second vice president from 1994 to 1998, led the Ibero-American General Secretariat from 2014 to 2021 and has headed UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) since 2021. Costa Rica formally nominated her on March 3.
If she is chosen, she would be the first woman to lead the United Nations since its founding in 1945, and the first Central American.
